Scientific Discoveries
by Skaterbob2
Summary: Curie has found that life as a synth is filled with these confusing feelings that are more a burden on her work than a blessing. Specifically feelings about Nate. MaleSSxCurie Reviews are welcome and wanted :)
1. Distractions

Curie laid in her bed, mind racing with thoughts of her and Nate in suggestive situations. She constantly attempted to rid the thoughts from her mind permanently so she could focus on her work as a medic and scientist, but always to no avail. Ever since she walked out of the Memory Den in her new synth body, she had felt an rush of new feelings and emotions. And she did not like it.

Not that the idea of her and Nate was so terrible. It was just so much simpler as a robot. She didn't have to worry about getting a bullet in her shoulder from a raiders flimsy pipe rifle while being carelessly distracted by her traveling companion. Or the constant anxiety she felt in his presence, always feeling like she would say the wrong thing and he would never wish to travel with her again.

Curie was tossing and turning in her bed so much she was sure all of Starlight Drive-In could hear her. The area had been claimed by the Minutemen two years ago and they turned it into a settlement big enough to rival Diamond City. Traders and travelers alike were constantly arriving and leaving the town, making it the biggest settlement under Minutemen control and the Minutemen's biggest moneymaker. There was a Trade shop, run by the former Vault-Tec Rep. Curie had a chance to converse with him while looking for a new microscope. She found his story quite tragic, but was interested how he had more of a history with Nate than anyone else in the Commonwealth, well... except for Codsworth. Starlight had an extremely large amount of living quarters, instead of low profile settlers sleeping on mattresses outside like in Diamond City and Goodneighbor, everyone had a roof over their head. It's what made Starlight such a desirable living spot, so much that eventually their population grew to triple digits. There were two bars, a clothing store, an armor shop, a weapon stand, and her favorite, the doctors office. Nate had built her a little lab of her own inside, she remembered when he had shown her.

 **Flashback**

"Are you're eyes closed?" Nate asked. "Yes monsieur, but why exactly are they closed?" Curie asked. "It's a surprise. Keep walking... just follow my voice." Nate said. Curie smiled. Surprises were in most cases good, they could be a gift, a party, or a new car.

But she knew that none of those were commonly found nowadays so suprises were meant to be taken with a bit of suspicion. She felt them enter a building and maneuver around some furniture into what she guessed was a back room. "Okay... now open your eyes." She lifted her eyelids apart and squealed in delight as she took in what was in front of her. There was a chem workstation, a table covered in science tech and chem ingredients, and some Vault-Tec grade medical equipment. "Oh my monsieur! This is wonderful!" Curie said with the biggest smile on her face possible. Nate let out a silent chuckle, she looked like a kid in Nuka-World. "Well it's yours and yours alone, your own private little laboratory." Upon hearing this she turned to face him, her face in shock. "This is all for me?" Nate nodded and instantly felt her arms lock around him. "Thank you very much, Monsieur thank you!"

 **End of flashback**

Curie cringed at the memory. Even though it was an affectionate moment between the two, her mind was able to turn the purest of memories into awkward orderals when she was in bed. Soon her shifting and fidgeting tired her out enough for her to fall sleep.

When she awoke the next morning she could already hear the sound of Brahmin shuffling around and scavvers chatting in the market area. She got up and shed her sleepwear. She button up her lab coat and headed to her lab. When she wasn't traveling with Nate, she was working on her stimpack formula with mutfruit. She was making slow progress though, like always her mind lingered on Nate. She wondered how humans functioned so easily with this constant flood of thoughts so deliciously distracting. She fought away images of Nate lacking certain articles of clothing so she could focus on her work. Eventually midday arrived, she could tell because she could see the guards changing shifts through the cracks in the wooden walls. She looked at what she had accomplished so far and found herself in almost the same state of research she was a few hours ago. She sighed in frustration and sat in the chair she had moved from her home to her lab. She began to surrender to her subconscious minds demands to think of Nate. She sat in her chair staring into space, deep in thought for what seemed like an eternity when she heard to office door open and close. It wasn't Ellen, the settlement doctor because she had arrived shortly after Curie did. She didn't hear and groans of pain so it wasn't a patient. Her speculations began getting ridiculous when her lab door opened and Mate stepped inside. He wore his usual traveling attire, it was a copy of the duster worn by the man they met in Far Harbor, Longfellow. But after spending some time in the dirt and dust environment of the Commonwealth instead of the humid, foggy, and wet one of Far Harbor, the coat had been stained a tan brown color. He leaned against the door carrying his automatic combat rifle in his hand with the safety on.

"How's it going Curie?" And once again he somehow made her insides do a flip with the simpliest of sentences and his usual smug grin. "My research has hit a bump, I just cannot remain focused." She said in her best flirting tone. She might as well try to calm these thoughts, and the best way to do that she thought was to try and make them a reality. Nate seemed to pick up on her flirting and said "Well... what could possibly cause that?" He said, his voice lowering to an almost whisper. "Well monsieur... if I had a partner here... maybe that would help." She said. Dear god she hoped she wasn't stepping over any unspoken boundaries. I mean he had returned the gesture, or she thought so, no. No that was definitely him flirting back so she had nothing to worry about right? "Well..." his face was inches from hers at this point, she could smell his breath, like tarberrys and Nuka Cola, it made her feel like she was in heaven. "Maybe I could have Cait join you in here." He finished. She playfully shoved him away while laughing. He was teasing her, nothing more. She was relieved but a large part of her felt disappointed. "No monsieur, she would break everything in here with her raider level buffoonery." She said as she plopped back down on her chair. Once Nate had stopped laughing he leaned against the wall. "I just wanted to let you know that me and Preston are heading to Quincy tomorrow." She felt her insides drop as she stood up, ready to protest. "What? But Nate, Quincy is full of Gunners! They'll kill you!" She forced her way into Nates grasp and wrapped her arms around him, he did the same trying to push back the tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "Yes I know it's dangerous. But if we can retake Quincy from the Gunners that'll be a huge victory for the minutemen. And it won't just be me and him, we'll have a few dozen minutemen with us." He pushed her back and brushed her chin up with his finger, forcing her to look him in the eye. "I'll be fine." She collapsed back into his chest and held him there for as long as she could.


	2. Leaving Town

Despite more constant protests from Curie, Nate and Preston were at the gate the next morning, ready to make the trip to the Castle to meet up with the other Minutemen then attempt to retake Quincy from the Gunners. Curie came to bid the two goodbye, along with several other of Nates companions who had taken up residence in Starlight. Piper had given up trying to fix Diamond City and moved her and Nat to Starlight and started a new newspaper, MacCready set up shop in Starlight because it was safer then Goodneighbor and had less competition in the hired guns business than Diamond City, and Danse just wanted a place to feel welcome after his exile.

Curie had her arms around Nate, hoping this was not the last time she'd feel his warmth. She knew how dangerous Quincy was, her damn mind was subconsciously searching for ways the Minutemen retake of Quincy could go wrong and result in something happening to her Nate.

Nate tried hopelessly to pry her off but accepted it and returned the hug. After a moment Curie let go and let Nate say hopefully temporary goodbyes to the rest of his companions.

"Good luck Blue, try not to die. It'd be a shame if the focus of my most successful article ever couldn't give me anymore interviews." Piper said.

"Don't worry Piper I'll see you soon and I'll tell you all about the fight." Piper got excited at the idea of a story about the brave Minutemen charging Quincy.

"Stay safe out there man," MacCready said. "And if you see a woman in power armor there, her names Tessa, could you use this bullet to kill her?" MacCready handed him a .44 bullet for Nates revolver, it had 'Tessa' carved into the side.

"Do you have a grudge against her or something?" Nate asked as he put the bullet away to keep it safe.

"She stole a pack of smokes from me while I was in the Gunners, and was in general a total bi- um... not nice lady." MacCready said. They did a bro hug and Nate moved on to Danse.

"I still think you should allow me to accompany you. I could use some training." Danse said in his commanding voice. He was out of his power armor and wearing a flannel shirt and jeans, but still had a laser rifle strapped to his back.

"Again Danse, the Castle is too close to the Airport, I can't guarantee your safety. And this isn't a training exercise, it's a war zone." Nate said chuckling at the former Paladins remaining sense of duty.

With that he and Preston walked out the gate and disappeared from Curies view. She ran inside the diner and up the stairs to the roof so she could see over the wall that surrounded Starlight. She saw Nate and Preston walking about twenty-five feet from the gate.

Nate felt eyes on him and turned. He saw Curie standing at the guard post and chuckled at her adorableness. He waved to her and she waved back. He turned back around and caught up with Preston.

Preston turned and saw the General a few feet behind him trying to catch up. "Why'd you stop?" Preston asked. Nate looked at him and acted like he didn't know what he was talking about. Preston turned around and saw Curie still watching them, looking like she was half worried and half enjoying the view.

Preston turned back around and gave the General a knowing look. Nate looked down as his cheeks stared to blush. What was wrong with him? He was a grown man. He shouldn't be blushing. What was it about Curie that turned him into a child with a crush.

Nate, who was desperate to change the mood, tuned his Pip-Boy radio to Diamond City Radio. He and Preston had talked about building a radio tower at Starlight, so they could share one more thing in common with Diamond City. The song 'Wandered' by Dion was playing. Nate started to sing along.

"Oh, well I'm the type of guy who will never settle down. Where pretty girls are, well you know I'm around. I kiss 'em and I love 'em cause to me they're all the same. I hug 'em and I squeeze 'em, they don't know my name. They call me the wanderer. Yeah, the wanderer. I roam around, around, around."

Nate sang all the way until Lexington, where if you made even the slightest noise the Gerald would rip you apart. Preston had some memories resurface in the area. Memories of him and the group of Quincy survivors.

 **Two years ago**

"Everybody run!" Preston yelled. The group came rushing into the empty building as Preston shot incoming ghouls from the smashed window.

"Close the door! Hurry before they get in!" Marcy yelled. Preston quickly obeyed. Shutting the door just in time for a launching feral to face plant on the door and break its neck.

"Still got everyone?" Preston asked. They all looked at each other to confirm they had everyone.

"Wait! Where's Garcia?" Stuffed asked. Preston ran to the window to look outside. He saw Garcia, one of his fellow Minutemen, lying against a wall. She was clutching her bleeding stomach with one hand and shooting ghouls with her pipe revolver with her other.

Preston tried to assist. He tried to take down all the Gerald getting too close. But his laser musket wasn't fast enough, and eventually Garcia ran out of ammo.

Garcia looked hopelessly at the merciless pack of ferals charging at her. They lunged at her and Preston watched in horror as they slowly tore her apart. Her screams filling his ears as he watched blood coat the wall she sat against.

He turned around. "She's gone. Ferals got her. We need to focus on us. Find a back exit or something we can use to fight out of here." The survivors broke apart and searched the former shoe store. He saw Chip, a fairly new Minuteman, on a couch with tears forming in his eyes.

Preston felt so bad for the kid. He had just gotten assigned to Colonel Hollis's group a week ago, and had instantly liked Garcia. "We'll mourn her later Chip. But right now we need to get out of here." Chip nodded and joined the group in finding an exit.

 **Present**

Chip had died later in Concord. The raiders shot him three times in the back right outside the door to the museum. Preston put his name and Garcia's up on a memorial wall built in the Castle, it had all the names of Minutemen who had gave their lives defending the Commonwealth in the past and present.

They walked past Lexington and into Cambridge. The area had been cleaned of Ghouls and Super Mutans by the Brotherhood so the walk through was relatively easy.

They arrived at the Castle before sunset. Nate greeted the soldier at the gate and proceeded into the Minutemen headquarters. Ronnie Shaw stood at the radio tower waiting for the two. She saw them at the gate and walked over. "Good to see you General, and you to Preston. We got a group of fifty Minutemen waiting for your go." She reported. "Fifty? I thought we had seventy five?" Nate said. Ronnie shook her head. "Not anymore. There was a situation on Spectacle Island. Some raiders learned how to swim and started shooting the place up." Nate looked confused "That cost twenty-five men? The turrets could easily take care of them." Ronnie again shook her head. "They weren't shooting pipe guns, they had missile launchers." Preston and Nate simultaneously said "Oh." "We should head over after this and assist in the reconstruction General. I assume there is probably a lot of damage." Ronnie nodded. "I can't. I made a promise to Curie that I'd return within the week." Ronnie and Preston laughed. "What?" Nate asked. "What? I'll tell you what. You're whipped!" Ronnie said while laughing. "I'm not." Nate retorted. "You aren't even with her and you're whipped. But in all seriousness General, we should head over. You can't let you're girlfriend replace your duties as General of the Minutemen." "She's not my- ugh." Nate sighed. "I'm going to bed. Tell the men we leave in the morning." Ronnie saluted and walked off. Nate left to his quarters and Preston walked to the bar.

 **Three days later**

Curie sat in her lab. She wasn't even trying to work anymore. It was hopeless. She was too worried about Nate. Her handsome, strong, caring Nate. Her nerves overwhelmed her and she left the doctors office.

She walked across town to join MacCready and Piper in the bar. They had constantly told her since Nate left that she was to stressed and needed a drink. She had turned them down at the time, but now she was willing to do anything to take her mind of Nate.

She walked through the door and saw a good amount of Starlights population. Fred, Anne Hargaves, Rylee, Tina De Luca, Sheffield, Ada, Codsworth, and several traveling merchants. And at the bar were the three people she was looking for. She sat on the stool next to MacCready. "Heeyy its Curie!" He said slurred. Curie could tell he was already drunk. "Pi- P- Piper, look it's Curie!" "Hi Curie." Piper said, sounding much more sober than the Merc she sat next to. Danse was sitting at the end of the bar next to Piper drinking purified water.

"Curie? I figured you of all people would be staying away from alcohol. Being as you're all science and medical stuff." Danse said. Even though he was drinking water, he sounded drunk. Piper cut in and explained after reading Curies expression. "Bartender cut him off. He was getting too rowdy." "No I wasn't I was behaving just like you said to." Danse argued. They continued their spat while Curie ordered a beer. She began drinking, and drinking, and drinking.

Curie woke up in her bed. She was still clothed and she had a splitting headache. She scarcely remembered the previous night. The last thing she could recall was Piper and Danse arguing and MacCready face down in the counter and snoring loudly.

"Good morning." Curie heard. She looked up and saw Piper in the doorway. "Good morning Ms. Piper. Were you the one who brought me home?" Piper nodded. "Yep. I was the most sober, and you three were all passed out so I took you all home."

Curie laid back down. She winced at the pain in her head as Piper spoke. The reporter was speaking normally but it felt like she was shouting in Curies ear. Piper detected Curies hangover and grabbed some Med-X from the synth doctors nightstand.

"Here. Med-X I've found is actually pretty useful with curing hangovers. Feel better now?" Piper asked. Curie nodded, the pain had ceased. She stared at the Med-X syringe. _I will have to study this later._

The two conversed for a bit. Piper filled her in on the events of the previous night. Apparently Curie, MacCready and Danse tried to climb the screen that towered over the settlement, they had gotten no more then five feet when they all slipped and fell on their asses. After that they drank some more at the bar, Curie dancing to the tune tune if whatever song was playing.

They stopped when they heard the sound of a vertiberd approaching. "Is that the Brotherhood?" Piper asked grimly. The Brotherhood and the Minutemen were in an uneasy peace with each other. Both sides hating the other and what they stood for. If the Brotherhood were to attack the Minutemen, they would certainly target Starlight.

Curie looked outside and saw the vertiberd. It flew about sixty feet above the roof of her house and landed on the roof of the guard barracks. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the Minutemen logo on the side. She turned back inside and responded "No it is not Brotherhood. It's a Minutemen ship."

She looked again towards the vertiberd and watched the door open. She felt her heart leap and quicken its beat when she saw Nate step out. She started running towards the barracks, with Piper closely behind her. But the closer she got, the more details she noticed.

Where was Preston? He hadn't gotten off, and there was no one else on board. Nate was clutching his side, and he had Minutemen surrounding him. She felt her soul shake when she noticed the dark red stains covering his abdomen. What the hell happened to him?


	3. The Battle for Quincy

Curie sat in the backless chair next to Nates bed. He had been lying there unconscious for the past three hours while Ellen, some Minutemen medics and herself had been trying to heal his wounds.

It was getting dark now and the stores in the market started shut down for the night. Curie walked to the power switch by the door and turned it on, the overhead lights now illuminating the doctors office.

Ellen eventually left to get some sleep and left Curie to watch over Nate. Curie waited anxiously for him to wake so she could ask him what had happened to him, what happened at Quincy, and where Preston was.

She eventually fell asleep in her chair, leaning against the wall. She woke to find Nate with his eyes open looking around the room. Ellen was back and injecting him with Med-X to numb the pain from his stitches and bruised ribs.

He looked at Curie, "Good morning sleepyhead." He said in his usual sarcastic tone. Curie felt like she just had a million bricks lifted of her chest when she heard his voice.

"Oh Nate! I was so worried about you when you were away! And when I saw you arrive... covered in blood... I felt so horrible." She wiped away a tear that had run down her cheek. Nate leaned in to comfort her, but drew back in pain.

"Im alright now Curie." He gave her a reassuring smile. She proceeded to ask him a million questions, not waiting for an answer before asking the next one.

"What happened? Did you retake Quincy? Where is Preston? How did you get shot? I thought you were smarter than that!" Nate put his hand on her arm and spoke over her.

"I'll tell you everything that happened. From the morning we marched to Quincy to my vertiberd ride here."

 **Twenty-nine hours earlier**

The Minutemen marched out of the gate towards Quincy. The General had just given a speech of freedom and ridding the Commonwealth of the Gunners. They were eager to get to Quincy and start the fighting. Nate and Preston tailed behind the larger mass of Minutemen. Preston was wearing his usual duster, but had grabbed a more useful automatic combat rifle for the mission. Nate was decked out in T-60 power armor and a mini gun to go with it. Vertiberd s flew over them, keeping the groups pace and not charging ahead.

 **One hour later**

The fighting had started. The Minutemen targeted the police station first. Nate had kept his promise to MacCready and used his custom bullet to kill the woman named Tessa. He got her right between the eyes and watched her fall of the roof into the road. Her power armor making loud clangs and bangs the whole way down.

 **Two hours later**

The Minutemen casualties started to rise in numbers. Bodies and bullets were falling everywhere Nate looked.

Preston had just shot down a Gunner on a rooftop when he saw one of their vertiberd crash on the overpass above. It exploded into a fiery wreckage. Nate watched more vertiberds emerge from the smoke, but these weren't Minutemen, it was the Brotherhood.

"What the hell are they doing here? Did they shoot down our ship?" Nate yelled to Preston. Preston opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by the sound of several loud bangs, the sound of power armor marching through the streets. Soon he heard the sound of the laser rifles taking down Minutemen and Gunners alike.

"What are they doing?! Why are they killing us?!" Nate yelled. He opened fire on a large group with his minigun. The bullets bounced off their armor until he managed to hit a weak spot and take a few down.

"This is hopeless! We need to retreat!" Preston yelled. "Get however is still alive and run back to the Castle!" Nate yelled back. Preston nodded and ran off to collect the survivors.

 **Twenty minutes later**

Nate started to fear for his life. The fusion core in his power armor had died and now he was armorless. His duster looked badass but it didn't protect him from much.

Vertiberds were crashing left and right. You couldn't walk without tripping over a dead body. And the town had been painted red with blood. Nate looked around and thought one thing.

 _I'm not getting out of here alive._

He started to think of Curie. He'd never see her beautiful face again, her dark brown short hair, her perfect body. He had collapsed against a wall and was on the verge on taking his gun and ending his life, not giving the Brotherhood the satisfaction of killing him.

He pulled the gun away from his temple when he heard Preston shout "General!" He ran out from the alley he was hiding in to see Preston with four other Minutemen. _Only four of them survived?_

"Come on we need to get out of here!" Preston waved him over. Nate ran toward them, but stopped when he saw something in his peripheral vision.

A lone Gunner stood on the roof of a church. A fat man on his shoulder, aiming directly at them.

"Preston! Run!"

It was too late. The Gunner fired the nuke and it landed right where Preston stood. Preston and the Minutemen disappeared in the flames and Nate was launched back ten feet. He felt a huge pain in his ribs as he hit the ground. He stood up, nothing was left of the remaining Minutemen. He was the last one.

In his shock he didn't notice a Brotherhood scribe aiming his rifle. She opened fire and got Nate in his chest. He collapsed on the ground and she moved on believing he was as good as dead.

 **Present**

"Eventually a Minutemen team sent by Ronnie to check on us found me in the road. They took me back to the Castle where I was taken by Vertiberd here." Nate finished. He had trouble telling her about Preston. It was still fresh and Preston was one of the people in this world he called a friend.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you. I wish I could've been their to defend you." Curie rested her head on his shoulder, trying her best not to upset his wounds.

"I'm glad you weren't there." Nate said. Curie lifted her head and looked at him with confusion. Nate met her gaze and continued. "If something happened to you... I wouldn't..."

He paused. The thought of what happened to him, or Preston, or the other Minutemen happening to Curie. It nearly made him cry.

They stayed silent for a while. Both of them thinking about what the other meant to them. Curie was thinking about the human emotion of love, she didn't know if she could handle it. He almost died and it nearly killed her too. And even when his life wasn't in danger she had been reduced to a distracted fool with a crush on the man who rescued her from the Vault.

But despite the heartache and distractions, she still felt drawn to him. She wanted to be human for science, but she got so much more than the inspiration she sought. She had been fighting it, nothing in her medical textbooks said anything about this.

She realized then that she wanted to be with him. Forever.

Nate thought about how when he thought he was going to die, he thought about Curie. How he had held her at the gate when she feared it would be the last time she'd see him. How he stopped and waved to her when he saw her at the guard post.

He would no longer deny he felt an attraction towards her, maybe he even lived her. But was this right? Nora had been dead for almost two years now, but he was still mourning her.

She'd want him to be happy though, wouldn't she?

He decided that he wanted to be with Curie. If she wanted that too.

 _I'm in love with Nate_ Curie thought.

 _I'm in love with Curie_ Nate thought.


	4. Never Drink and Gossip

Two months had passed since the Battle of Quincy and Prestons death. Nates wounds had healed well and Ellen had given him permission to return to his duties as General. Curie still fussed over him though, asking if he felt any pain, keeping close to him at all times, trying to help him perform the simplest of tasks.

Nate found her constant presence very frustrating. Not because she bothered him, he lo-... enjoyed Curies company. But his recently emerged feelings distracted him, and her always being nearby didn't help him focus.

He was preparing to make a trip to the Castle. He needed to meet with Ronnie and discuss what they were going to do, now that the Brotherhood was attacking any Minutemen on sight.

And he needed to put Preston's name on the memorial wall.

The loss of Preston had affected him greatly, and the rest of the Minutemen. He was a shining example of what a soldier should be. Determined, focused, and loyal.

But to Nate he was more, he was the first person he'd met in the Commonwealth, besides Codsworth. And he was one of the few people Nate called a friend, someone he could trust.

He was in his house in Starlight, grabbing whatever he could fit in his bag that would be useful. He grabbed his hunting rifle, some stimpacks, some Med-X, and a bottle of Nuka-Cola Quantum.

He was putting his .44 revolver in is holster when he heard a knock at his door. He walked over and asked "Who is it?" He had learned that you always had to be careful in the Commonwealth, especially with his status as General of the Minutemen. So he had his hand on the .44s grip.

"It's me." He heard the French accent and knew who it was. He sighed, _God her voice is angelic_ he thought as he holstered his weapon and opened the door.

"Curie, what brings you here?" He asked, moving out of the way allowing her inside.

"I wanted to check on you. Make sure you had no pain in your abdomen." She said as she took a seat on the edge of his bed. _Why'd she have to sit on my bed? She's so horribly tempting!_

"No pain today, Curie. Thank you, and if I do have a medical emergency you'll be the one I go to." He reassured her.

She knew he would say no. He has been saying that for a week. She knew medicine better, she just wanted to see him. But there seemed to be another reason he was saying no. Did he feel uncormfortable around her? Did she overstep her bounds at some point?

"Well... alright..." she said as she stood from the bed, she looked at the floor. "Are you okay Monsieur? You seem distant, like you are always pushing me from you." She confronted. _Uh oh. She's onto me_ Nate thought.

"No! No... no. I just- I- don't want to keep you busy. You're a medic, people need you around here and I don't want to keep them waiting." He stammered out the first excuse he could think of. _I'm dead._

"Well, I think they could just go to Elizabeth." Curie said as she looked up at him. He was a foot taller than the synth doctor so she had crane her neck up to meet his eyes. "Do you not want me around?"

"No! No! No! I couldn't live without you!" He felt extremely flushed and embarrassed as he realized what he just said. Curies eyes widened and she gasped.

"I- I'm- I'm sorry?" She asked him to repeat.

"I mean... um- what about you could join me on my trip to the Castle. MacCready is coming with me so it'll be the three of us. And Mac is a good shot but he can't stitch up a wound for shit." He tried to recover and he felt it was working.

"Alright, well I'll get my things." She said, slightly disappointed. She walked outside and proceeded to her home.

She ran inside her house and shut the door. Did he really just say that? She must have been dreaming. The man she had been hopelessly falling for her had just admitted to sharing her feelings.

 _Wait. That wasn't an admission. He just misspoke. The General is smarter than that. He has a mission, he's not going to let some girl distract him._ She shut down her delusions of Nate reciprocating her feelings and started gathering her equipment.

 **Three hours later**

The three Minutemen walked through the ruins of Boston on their way to the Castle. Nate's Pip-boy radio played Radio Freedom, despite complaints from MacCready. He said that the music made him want to throw himself off a building, and a new settlement needed help every ten seconds. Nate ignored him and kept playing the music.

Curie eventually got a bit ahead of the two others and was far away enough to not hear the two conversing about her.

"So... you got feelings for the French girl." MacCready said bluntly. Nate turned to him with a faked innocent expression.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Nate said, denying the obvious.

"Oh please. In the past few months you two have been so obvious. You sneaking looks at her when you think nobody's looking. You get so awkward around her, it's like you're a damn middle schooler." MacCready said as he took a swig from the beer he took from Starlight.

"That's ridiculous. There's nothing going on between me and Curie." Nate scoffed. _I'm going to shoot him if he doesn't shut up._

"Then I guess you don't want to hear what she said about you when you were at Quincy." Mac said smugly. Nate immediately stopped him and stepped in front of him.

"What did she say?" He asked, half angry and half hopeful.

"I'll only tell you if you admit you like her." MacCready bargained.

"Fine, I like Curie. Now what did she say." Nate admitted.

Mac took another swig from his warm beer and began telling Nate about Curies visit to the bar when he was at Quincy.

 **Two months earlier**

Curie stumbled around Pipers house. She and Mac were singing along with the radio.

"I don't wanna set the wooorrrrllllldd ooooonnnn fire!" They sang horribly, making Pipers ears nearly bleed. Danse snored on a chair in the corner, the music not affecting him.

"I just want tooooo start... a flame in your heart..." they halted their singing with that line and sat on the couch. Curie poke the merc in the chest and started prattling about Nate.

"I came tonight because I needed a distraction. He's been on my mind for tooooooooo long." She drunkenly slurred. "You wanna hear a secret? I like Nate!" *hic* "Hahahahaha!" She fell asleep on the couch and started snoring loudly, along with MacCready.

 **Present**

"Really? How do you even remember that? Piper told me you were blackout drunk." Nate asked.

"Years of practice, that's the key. And Piper told me about it the next day." The merc said.

Nate was filled with confused emotions. Half of him was ecstatic, Curie had admitted to Mac and Piper that she had romantic feelings for him. But the other half panicked. What if it was just an effect of the alchohol, even if it wasn't, they were about to enter a war with the Brotherhood. He couldn't bare to finally have her, then lose her to some Brotherhood douche.

He was shaken back to reality as Curie yelled to them. "Are you coming? We're almost there!" The two men started following her again and soon the Castle came into view.

Nate decided that he would deal with this later, he had time right?

Well, what he didn't know was that Curie had heard everything, and she didn't want to wait.


	5. The Villainy of The Brotherhood

The group of three walked through the gates into the Castle. They walked into the courtyard, the area had been converted living area for settlers who had come to the Castle to live under constant Minutemen protection. Nate wasn't going to turn away anyone in need, and they could work the more domestic jobs in the Castle while Minutemen performed their duties. So they were allowed to stay.

Sturges emerged from the stone walls and approached Nate. Since he had been rescued from Concord, Sturges had become the Minutemens Quartermaster. When he accepted the position Nate had jokingly called him Q, Sturges just looked confused as Nate laughed.

"Hey boss," Sturges greeted the General with a salute, then returned to normal. "Everything's ready, if you wanna start the ceremony now."

"Alright. Let the radio operator know, he'll tell the rest of the Castle." Sturges nodded and headed to the radio tower.

Nate walked into the Castle walls and met Ronnie near the memorial wall. Curie looked at the possibly hundred of names on the wall. _Brett Miller, Margot Hughes, Jake Shephard, Garcia Mendez, Jun Long,_ were just a few.

An announcement interrupted the normal Radio Freedom music, "All Minutemen in the Castle, please report to memorial wall for funeral service." Slowly, about a dozen people, dressed in normal Minutemen attire stood in formation around the wall. Ronnie handed Nate the wooden plaque with _Preston Garvey_ engraved on it.

Nate stared at the plaque, remembering his friend and brother in arms. He turned to the wall and placed it in an empty spot. He turned to the crowd and said a few words.

"Preston Garvey was more than just a Minutemen. He was the last one who hadn't given up or died, no matter how bleak things became or how challenging, he kept pushing forward. Without him none of us would be standing here, the Minutemen would be gone forever and the Institute would still be terrorizing the Commonwealth. May he never be forgotten."

Nate repeated adding the name to the wall and the speech for every person who died at Quincy. By the time he was done night had fallen and most of the settlers had gone to sleep. "That's all, you may return to your duties." The Minutemen nodded and proceeded to their guard posts or beds. Nate charged to his quarters with Curie, MacCready, Ronnie, and Sturges behinds him.

He practically knocked the door down when he entered his room. He sat in the chair at his conference table and opened a bottle of whiskey. He drank straight from the bottle instead of pouring it into a glass, he set the drink down after drinking half the bottle.

"I want to know... why the hell the Brotherhood are now trying to kill us." Nate yelled. His company sat at the table, trying to avoid eye contact with the General.

"I have no idea, I thought we had peace between us, them and the Railroad. When I talked to Teagen last week nothing seemed amiss. But he's just the Quartermaster." Sturges said.

"And this ain't the first time they've made a hostile move towards us." Ronnie added. "After we brought Danse into our ranks, Elder Maxson sent someone to kill him."

"That was different, that was one person and it was because of past issues. Now they're cutting us down as if we're ferals." Nate said rubbing his forehead.

Curie raised her hand to speak. "Curie." Nate asked "You have something to add?" She nodded.

"I think Danse might actually be the key to this, he has more experience with the Brotherhood than anyone here, and his exile was only a few months ago. He may know something of their current plans. Plus he was one of Elder Maxsons highest ranking officers."

"Curie... that's genius, that might lead to something. Sturges, go tell the radio operator to send a message to Starlight. Tell them Danse needs to come to the Castle as soon as possible." Sturges got up from his chair and left the room to deliver the message.

"Should we make a plan for the Gunners, they could still be a threat." Ronnie asked.

"We shouldn't have to worry about them anymore." MacCready said. "I went to Goodneighbor last month, according to a lot of people there, like Hancock and Charlie, the Gunners have been crippled since Quincy. The few that didn't drop their flags are holed up in Gunners Plaza and are too scared to leave." Mac finished.

"Good. Well, once Danse gets here we need to make a plan on how to deal with the Brotherhood. Dismissed." Ronnie and MacCready got up from their chairs and saluted the General. But Curie still remained in her seat.

"Curie, don't you wanna go to the bar or store or something?" Nate asked. Curie detected the exhaustion in his voice. He sounded like he hadn't slept in days. Preston dying hit him hard.

"Um... no. Actually I wanted to speak with you." She stood up as she spoke and walked towards him. She walked slowly as if Nate was a wild animal, one wrong move and she's dead.

"Curie can it wait? You know I like having you around and talking to you, but I'm incredibly exhausted, and Sturges wants to show me the new equipment we have." Nate collapsed onto his bed and shut his eyes, falling asleep before Curie could make any sort of response.

"Fine." She turned in her heel and walked out. She basically sprinted past the other Minutemen, leaving them to whisper about what the hell she was doing.

She walked into her assigned quarters and picked her assigned bed. She climbed in the sheets and spent the next two hours thinking of the twenty second talk she had with Nate. She thought that night she'd confess her feelings, and her reciprocate them. But he just sent her out.

Soon her exhaustion won over her conscious mind and she drifted to sleep.

Nate walked down into the tunnels where he knew he could find Sturges. Sure enough the Quartermaster was slaving away on one of the workbenches. "You wanted to see me Sturges?" Nate asked.

"Hmm? Oh yeah." Sturges grabbed a small case from on of the shelves. He opened it on a table and pulled out a variety of gadgets. The first was a small radio, barely bigger than the tip of Nate's thumb. "This first one is a portable radio, currently its only function is a distress beacon. If you're ever in a tight spot, just flip this thing right here," Sturges pointed at a small switch on the underside of the device. "And any Minutemen nearby and the Castle will hear it. Help will be on the way before you know it."

"Nice. I'm sure that'll come in handy." Nate said as he placed the radio back on the table. Sturges picked up another small object. This one was a metallic cylinder, Sturges unscrewed a cap and showed Nate the small amount of a glowing white goo inside.

"This is an acid that will eat away any lock you come across. Quietly and quickly." Sturges seemed rather proud of himself, and he should've been. This tech was almost Institute level.

"Anything else?" Nate asked as he screwed the cap back on. He didn't want to get any of the goo on him, seeing as Sturges just said it melted almost any lock upon contact.

"I've got one other big thing but it's... still in production. Just those two for right now." Sturges said.

"Well thanks Sturges. I'm sure these will be a big help in the future." Nate closed the box and placed it back on the shelf. The Quartermaster bid the General goodnight as he resumed his work.

 **100 points to you if you got the James Bond reference.**


	6. Peace Talks

As soon as Danse was told about what was happening at the Castle he started preparing to leave Starlight. He got dressed in his traveling gear, a set of old Brotherhood fatigues, and grabbed his usual laser rifle.

He set out on the road the Castle with a few extra Minutemen that Nate had insisted join him, due to the Brotherhoods increased activity in Minutemen territory.

They left Starlight at midday, by the time they were about half a mile from the Castle the sun was starting to set.

Danse was ahead of his group and approached the gate. A young guard stood on the wall of the Castle,he stood inside a guard post drinking a Nuka-Cherry and paying barely any attention to his duties.

"Excuse me?" Danse tried to get the Minutemen recruits atention, he succeeded and the boy looked down. He saw the Brotherhood uniform and started panicking. He dropped his drink in shock and the red contents spilled all over him and the surrounding area. Danse felt a little soda land on him too.

"Its them!" He said with a heavy Boston accent. He grabbed his laser musket that was perched next to him and yelled into the courtyard, "The Brotherhoods attacking!" He turned back to Danse waiting at the gate and pointed his weapon at the ex-Brotherhood soldier.

"Woah! Garrett! Put the gun down it's fine!" Nate ran up to the boy and seized the weapon. "Sorry about that Danse!" Nate yelled over the wall. Danse nodded in understanding.

"General! I'm sorry I didn't realize that Danse coming!" He stammered trying to explain himself to the General. Nate waved the recruit off and opened the gate.

Danse and his company walked through the gates and Nate walked around the stone walls of the Castle to get to the stairs and meet them. He hopped off the last step of the steps and walked across the grass courtyard.

"Danse I'm glad you're here, now we can actually get a plan together about how to take down the Brotherhood." Nate summoned a man dressed in road leathers from the wooden wall of what appeared to be a bar. The man dropped his cigarette in grass and stepped on it. He then walked to the General to see what he needed.

"Have someone clean up Private Garretts mess up there before the next shift. And install the god damn spotlights by the gate before I lose my mind. Someone almost just got killed because Garrett couldn't see their face." The man nodded and trotted off up the stairs and to the guard post.

"Good to see you Nate, I'm sorry if my choice of traveling clothes caused a problem." Danse said.

"Don't worry about it, Garretts always been a dumbass. Head to my quarters and have a seat at the table, I'll get everyone else and we'll talk. My room is through that opening and down the hall to your right." Nate pointed to the opening in the wall that he was talking about. Danse nodded and walked off.

Nate marched into the armory where he knew he could find Ronnie taking inventory and Sturges working on some type of laser musket mod, a new robot, or an upgrade for the artillery.

Sure enough Nate walked inside and found Ronnie scribbling down something on a clipboard while recruits counted the items on the shelves, and Sturges at the weapons workbench slaving over a combat rifle.

"Ronnie, Sturges," the two turned to the General and saluted. "I don't know if you heard already but Danse just arrived, I need you two back in the meeting room."

"Sure thing General." Ronnie handed the clipboard to one of the recruits and hustled off.

"Whatever you need boss." Sturges set the taken apart combat rifle in the table and proceeded towards the Generals quarters.

Nate then went to the bar where MacCready usually spent his time, drinking to forget about Duncan who was alone in the Capital Wasteland. Well not exactly alone, MacCready had asked an old friend and his wife Sara to take care of Duncan until he returned.

Nate opened the door to the watering hole and instantly smelled the alchohal and cigarette smoke staining the wooden walls. He sauntered over to a booth in the corner of the building where he saw MacCready drinking a beer and talking to Curie.

 **Fifteen minutes earlier**

MacCready sat alone in the booth, he was reading a Grognak comic and slowly gulping down his second drink.

He set down his comic for a moment to take a sip from his beer when he saw Curie enter. He would've just gone back to drinking and reading but she caught his eye for some reason.

Then when she turned and he saw her face he felt sick. Her eyes were red and spongy from crying and her hair was not combed at all. She looked like the first stages of ghoulification. MacCready waved her over and she took a seat across from him.

"You okay? You look like shit." MacCready asked.

"Well that's always what a lady wants to hear MacCready. And no I'm not okay." She put her head down on the table and started banging her against it.

"Do you wanna talk about? Or at least stop doing what you're doing, my beer is starting to spill."

She raised her head and sighed. "Normally I wouldn't come to you with inquiries like this, but Miss Piper is not here so you'll have to do."

"I'm flattered to be your only option. Now spill, what's made you look like the human equivalent of the Glowing Sea."

"It's Nate." MacCready shouldn't have been surprised. These two were being such schoolgirls about their feelings. He barely put down his reading material while she talked. "I wanted to talk to him yesterday about us. I wanted to tell him how I felt, but he just shut me out."

"Is that why you look like you've been bobbing for apples in toxic waste?" MacCrady asked, he was trying his best to be supportive. But Lucy had always told him that he didn't know when to stop making jokes.

Curie leaned over the table and slapped him. "Ow! Okay I deserved that." MacCready rubbed the spot on his head where her hand had made contact.

"Yes you did. I don't know what to do. I heard you two talking on the way here and I thought we might start something."

MacCready stopped her and asked "Wait... how did you hear us? We were a good one hundred feet behind ya."

"You two talk louder than you think."

"Ahh, well have you talked to Nate since?" MacCready was giving this his full attention now. He set down his drink and his comic was closed and to the side

"No... I should, I know but I can't. When I see him I'm reminded of him shoving me out of his room." Curie heard the door open and looked over. _Speak of the devil..._

She saw Nate walking over to the two. She prepared herself mentally, she was actually rehearsing conversation in her head. She hated these feelings, if she could get rid of them she would.

"Hey Mac, Danse just got here. We need to work on the Brotherhood." MacCready downed the rest of his beer and put the Grognak comic in his back pocket.

The two men walked off and left Curie alone in the booth. She sat ther for a few moments in silence. She thought about if this fantasy she had about Nate and her together was really the wisest thing to do right now.

Soon she sighed, and got up and walked back to her room.

The Generals four advisors all sat at the table while Nate paced in front of his liquor cabinet.

"So... are we gonna talk or we just here to watch you walk around the room for a few hours?" MacCready finally piped up after staying uncharacteristically quiet for a few moments.

"I don't really know how to start this. Danse do you know why the Brotherhoods suddenly made us out to be public enemy number one?" Nate asked.

"Maxson never liked the Minutemen. Neither anyone higher ranks. Kells, Quinlan, Ingram, even Scribe Haylen expressed to me her distaste towards the Minutemen once. I hadn't heard any plan about taking out the Minutemen before I was exiled, and I don't think anyone with an important opinion would bat an eye if Arthur just decided to wipe you off the map."

"So could we have unspoken supporters in the Brotherhood?" Sturges asked.

"A lot of people hate you guys at the Boston Airport, but most of the initiates and low-level scribes actually think you guys have the right idea." Danse responded.

"So could we maybe talk some people into leaving the Brotherhood behind? If there is even the slightest chance that we can recruit most of the Brotherhoods soldiers for ourselves we should take it." Nate said.

"I think that could work, but before we go to war I think we should atleast talk to Maxson." At Danses suggestion the rest of the group started yelling and cursing him out.

"Hey! Hey stop! Before you kick me out of here just let me say this." Danse pleaded. "Arthur Maxson is a sociopath but he's not above talking to his enemies."

"Are we really considering this?" Ronnie asked. "I will not have a peaceful chat with the person responsible for the deaths of my friends."

"I'm not going to talk to Maxson, he can rot in hell for all I care." Sturges said.

"You really think talking to him could help?" Nate asked. His advisors continued to voice their displeasure until Nate silenced them.

"I do."

"Alright then, Ronnie send someone to Boston Airport. If their not fired at on sight they'll deliver the message saying I want to meet with Maxson. Alone." Ronnie nodded and walked out. "The rest of you are dismissed too."

Sturges and MacCready left to their quarters. Danse got up to follow them but was stopped when Mate put his hand on the synths shoulder. "Danse, are you really okay with helping us? Because if this talk doesn't go well, we will have to wipe out the Brotherhood. At least in the Commonwealth."

Danse looked down and silently nodded. "Don't worry about me. I couldn't give a rats ass about the Brotherhood after what they did to me." The two men shook hands and separated. Before Danse could leave though he was stopped again.

"Hey Danse," he turned around. "If it's not too much trouble could you find Curie and tell her to come talk to me?" Nate asked.

"No problem." Danse responded before leaving and closing the wooden door behind him.


	7. I Love You

When Danse found Curie she was lying on the sheetless bed. She wasn't asleep or even trying to, she was just on her back staring at the ceiling. Danse thought about maybe getting the doctor, but instead he just tried to wake her up.

His worries about her having some sort of medical problem were extinguished when she rose into a sitting position. "Hey Curie," He said, trying to break the tension. From her point of view he had just been standing a few feet from her bed staring at her.

"Is there something you need Danse?" She asked.

"Nate told me to send you over to his room, he wants to talk to you alone." Danse replied. Curie suddenly felt goosebumps cover her skin when she heard Nates request. Why did her want to talk to her? Alone?

"Did he give any reason why?" She asked, trying very hard to hide her mixed feelings of fear and giddiness.

"No, he just asked for me to tell you. Now that I've done that I'm gonna get some sleep. Have a good talk." He said as he flopped onto a bed nearby. His tone almost sounded knowing to Curie. _Are we really that obvious? So obvious that even a brick wall like Danse sees something?_ Curie thought.

She stepped off of the bed and put on some shoes.She stepped into the stone hallway of the Castle and walked towards the Generals quarters.

She wasn't sure what she was going to do if this conversation was what she thought it was going to be, she had just thought about this at the bar. And her talk with Mac there didn't help her uneasy feelings. She wanted to tell him but this wasn't really a great time for romance.

She stopped outside the large wooden doors separating her from Nate. She raised her hand to knock. She stood there with her hand raised for a long time, like she was a statue. Her mind was still racing about what to do about the feelings she had.

She knocked as she reached her decision. She wasn't going to tell him. She couldn't. This wasn't the time and what if his feelings weren't as strong as hers.

"Come in." She heard Nate say. She pushed open one of the doors and walked inside. Nate stood next to his liquor cabinet pouring himself a glass of some type of alchohol. Curie couldn't see the bottle but it smelled rancid.

"Hey Curie, I just wanted to-" Nate tried to explain reason behind the late night meeting with Curie. But he was cut off by the synth girl suddenly screaming.

"I'm in love with you!" She screamed. _Oh no._

Nate dropped his glass and the awful smelling liquid spilled on the stone floor. He had heard the she liked him from MacCready but to hear her say it. He felt like he was on cloud nine.

They both stood movementless in silence for a while, Curie was shocked that she had just screamed out that she was in love with Nate loud enough for the whole Castle to hear, and Nate was paralyzed with excitement.

"I... I-" Curies faltered words broke the long silence. She then turned on her heel and bolted back out the door.

"Wait Curie!" Nate tried to run after her but she was a lot faster than him. He grabbed a walker talkie from his table and turned it on. "This is the General asking all available Minutemen in the Castle or Castle area to keep an eye out for Curie, if you find her bring her to my quarters in the Castle, do you copy?" He asked.

About ten different voices from coming from the radio almost simultaneously said "Roger." Nate turned off his radio and placed it in his pocket. He looked at the broken glass on the floor and went to grab a broom.

Curie ran outside into the courtyard and sprinted up the stairs. She jumped down from the wall and sprinted into the outskirts of Quincy. She stopped when she was about half a mile from the Castle. She found a door that wasn't boarded up and walked inside the building.

Her shelter appeared to be a former bakery. Or some other type of restaurant. There were booths lining the walls with a busted jukebox in the corner. Plates, glasses, and boxes and cans of food were strewn across the floor. She sat inside one of the booths and began to cry.

She cried about the possibilty of ruining her friendship with Nate and humiliating herself. She couldn't bare the thought of not being able to talk and travel with him normally without any awkwardness. But she didn't want to completely isolate herself from him.

Eventually her crying grew louder and louder. So loud I that it attracted a passing Minutemen patrol to her location. A group of three opened the door and stepped inside the restaurant. They found Curie and one of the stronger ones picked her up. She gave no resistance, she didn't have the strength to.

One reached for his radio. "General this is patrol squad blue, do you have ears on? ." _Did he send out search parties for me?_ Curie was infuriated but also a little flattered.

"Affirmative, have you found her?" Nates distorted voice came over the speaker.

"Affirmative sir, we're bringing her back to you, over." He turned of his radio and turned to the Minteman carrying Curie. "You bring her back to the General and we'll resume the patrol."

The Minuteman nodded and slung Curie over his shoulder. They began making their way back to the Castle and to Nate.

Nate stood at the gate waiting for them. They stepped inside and the Minuteman set Curie in the ground. She turned and saw Nate, she expected his eyes to be filled with fury. But she was surprised to see him looking concerned and relieved.

They walked back to his room. Nate shut the door and made sure to lock it. "What the hell Curie?" He asked.

"What the hell me? You are the one who called a state of emergency!" She responded.

"I only made the call because I was concerned about you. And it's the middle of the night nobody important saw anything." Nate said. "Now can we get back to what you said a while ago?" He stepped closer to her and she gulped.

"It was an accident. I'm sorry I don't want to-" she was the being cut off this time, but not by Nate shouting at her.

She felt his lips meet hers. She stunned by the suddenness of the kiss but she soon gave in to it. Nate felt her kiss him back and it felt amazing. Her lips felt like they fit perfectly together with his like puzzle pieces.

Reluctantly Curie pulled away. Nate instantly missed the feeling of her skin on his. "That was... amazing monsiuer. But... are we both sure about this? Are you sure about this?" She asked.

"I'm one hundred percent sure." Nate said.

"But I'm worried that... that one of us could get hurt. Or die. We are about to go to war, and even if we weren't we face death every day in the Commonwealth. I don't want to finally have you only to lose you again." She said. A tear fell from her eye as she laid her head on his chest.

"Hey," Nate lifted her head and wiped away the lone tear on her cheek. "I want to be with you Curie. If I do die or you die, I would and I'm sure you would to be full of regret about not doing this." They kissed again. Curie stood in her tip-toes to reach lip level with Nate.

"Nate... I- I love you." She said much quieter and peacefully than before.

"I love you to Curie."


	8. Old Friends and New Enemies

Curie woke from her peaceful sleep with Nates arm wrapped around her. They had fallen asleep together after confessing their love to one another.

Nothing had happened though, Nate was too much of a gentleman to try anything too soon. But Curie wouldn't object if he wanted to explore the relationship between them further. She had read extensively on the subject of human romances when she first started having these feelings. According to all the books she read sex was natural for couples.

She turned over and saw the Greek sculpture of a man lying next to her. Nate had removed his shirt before falling asleep to avoid discomfort, much to Curies pleasure. She had seen him shirtless before many times. Whether he needed medical assistance on the battlefield or she 'accidentally' walked in on him changing.

But before she was afraid she'd be caught staring, but now they were together and she was free to ogle all she wanted.

Nate was definitely one of the most muscular men she had ever seen. His time in the military before the war obviously did him some good. His chest looked like it was crafted by Michelangelo. His arms had more muscle than her entire body. And his face, don't even get her started.

His jaw was so sharp she was afraid she'd get a paper cut if she touched it. He had the sexiest stubble that made her go crazy. And his eyes were the deepest shade of green she could imagine.

Unknown to Curie, Nate started to wake. His eyes peeled open to find Curie looking him up and down with a spaced out expression.

"Stop staring you perv." Nate teased. Curie looked up and saw the piercing eyes of her love. Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment as Nate kissed her forehead.

They spent the rest of the morning in bed holding each other and enjoying the warmth of their partner.

Around midday Nate heard a knock on the wooden door. He reluctantly released himself from Curie's hold and dressed himself appropriately.

He opened the doors and allowed a young female Minuteman inside. "Good afternoon General. We have received a radio transmission from the Prydwen. Elder Maxson accepts your proposal and will meet you in twenty-four hours."

"Thank you soldier. Dismissed." The woman saluted and walked out the door.

"Nate are you sure this is safe? I don't trust Elder Maxson, especially not with you going alone." She grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him close, allowing her a tiny bit of comfort.

"I want a chance for peace. I don't want any more blood spilled and I'm sure Maxson wants the same. This is the only way to make sure neither of our soldiers needlessly die." Nate replied.

"But what if it's a trap? You can't fight your way through an entire airship of Brotherhood soldiers!" Curie cried.

"I'll be fine." He kissed the top of her head and she felt all her worry replace with contentment.

 **Twenty-three hours later**

MacCready and Nate stood outside the Castle walls and on the helipad constructed a few hundred feet away from the main gate. They awaited the Brotherhood vertiberd that would be there soon to take Nate to the Prydwen. The worst place for any Minuteman to be at the moment.

"Do you think they went back on the deal?" MacCready asked. He had his rifle out with the safety off in case the Brotherhood tried anything.

"No, they would've radioed us first." Nate responded.

"I don't trust these guys." MacCready said.

"You think I do? I'm sure the only reason Maxson agreed to this was so he could kill me himself." Nate responded

"So then why are ya meeting him if you know it's a trap?" MacCready asked.

"So I could have a chance to kill him." Nate answered. MacCready, satisfied with the answer, returned to watching the sky.

They then heard the sound of the whirring propellers of a vertiberd approaching. They saw the silhouette of the ship in the morning sky.

Nate and MacCready stepped back from the helipad to give the pilot room to land. The vertiberd slowly lowered itself onto the helipad.

A Brotherhood initiate stepped out and saluted Nate. Nate turned to MacCready and waved a goodbye before climbing aboard.

The vertiberd took off and headed towards the Prydwen. Curie watched the metal bird containing the love of her life fly through the sky, hoping he would not meet his early end on board the ship.

Nate felt very uncomfortable on the ride over and even more so aboard the airship. Everyone affiliated with the Brotherhood gave him some nasty look as he passed by.

The door to the command deck was guarded by two power armor wearing Brotherhood knights. Each were armed with a minigun and would not take their sights off Nate.

The soldier escorting Nate through the flight deck showed an I.D. and the guards allowed him access.

Nate stepped into the dimly lit command deck. He could hear the soldiers in power armor stomping above him and the work of the lancers down below.

He stepped past the ladder that took someone to the main deck and walked into Elder Maxsons observation area.

Standing by the window was Elder Maxson himself. He was looking out into the ruins of Boston with his typical scowl in his face. "Hello General." He said without turning.

"Hello Elder. Would you care to tell me why you're killing my soldiers?" Nate asked with obvious disdain for the man before him.

"Right down to it? Okay. I was gonna offer you a drink but I guess it's straight to business." Elder Maxson said as he turned towards Nate.

"I don't want to stay here long. I just want to work out whatever is going on with us and go back to the Castle. I'm not planning on giving you any chances to kill me."

"There will be no peace between the Brotherhood and the Minutemen. You're existence is a threat to our future plans, so you all must be taken care of. All of you." Maxson said.

Nate heard the click of several laser weapons activating behind him. He turned and saw three Brotherhood paladins all pointing their weapons at his back.

"Well... looks like you've outwitted me. So now are you going to kill me?" Nate asked as he turned towards the Elder.

"No. I want you to hear what's going to happen, what we're going to do to all the people you care about. Like that synth girl and the mercenary." Nate felt blinding rage building inside him when Maxson mentioned Curie.

"You're not going to touch her." He said.

"We won't need to. We have guns." Maxson said in a snarky manner. "In the two years I've been in the Commonwealth, I've come to realize that's it's hopeless."

"What?" Nate said.

"There is no hope for the Commonwealth. The taint of the Institute and the mutants has infecteted it into the ground. Ghouls are allowed freely in cities, synths are treated as people, hell you have a super mutants in the Minutemen! The people have turned on the Brotherhood since you destroyed the Institutes headquarters, so now we turn on them."

"What are you going to do?" Nate asked.

"I'm issueing a full scale massacre of the entire Commonwealth. No living thing will be allowed to continue living. We will wipe out this virus before it spreads to the rest of the United States." Maxson said.

"You're going to wipe out the entire Commonwealth?!"

"That's right. And you're organization is a threat to that plan. Therefore you must be dealt with before we can begin."

"You're sick!" Nate berated Maxson. "This isn't the answer! The Commonwealth deserves life, it can be fixed!" Nate pleaded.

"No. It cannot. It is the most vile and inhuman cesspool of mutants and hatred I have ever come across. Your friend Preston understands that."

 _What?!_

"Don't you Preston?" Maxson asked.

Nate heard the click of another laser weapon behind him. He turned slowly around, and was faced with his former second-in-command and friend.

Preston Garvey.


	9. Dirty Tactics

Nate examined the traitor before him. It was Preston, but he was nothing like Nate remembered.

The damage the mini nuke did was very noticeable. The entire left side of his face was burned beyond recognition with an eyepatch covering his eye.

His left arm had been replaced with a robotic prosthetic, must have been blown off in the explosion. He wore his usual colonial duster, but it was on top of a Brotherhood officer uniform with the combat armor to go with it.

He had a beard growing on the undamaged half of his face and his hair had been shaved and given the usual Brotherhood haircut.

"It's you? You're alive?!" Nate couldn't decide which shocked him more, the fact that Preston was alive or that he had joined the Brotherhood.

"That's right. I was taken to the Prydwen and healed while you and the other Minutemen left me to die." Preston replied hatefully. Even his voice was different, it was more rough and commanding than when Nate first met him.

"Why the hell have you turned your back on the Minutemen? On everything you once stood for?!"

"I should've known Maxsons solution was the right idea from the first Quincy massacre. People in this wasteland don't care about each other. They leave their fellow soldiers to die for nothing more than useless power in something as small and irrelevant as the Minutemen." Preston remarked with his pistol still aimed between Nates eyes.

"And if they aren't abandoning their friends, they become raiders, Gunners, or Institute workers. Just another problem besides the mutants. This place is beyond rescuing. A mass genoicide is the only solution."

"You make me sick. Both of you." Nate said to Maxson. He turned back to Preston. "You used to be a good man. A man who did the right thing. Now you're evil. I don't know what brainwashing technique the Brotherhood used on you but you are not that man anymore. I'm leaving." Nate said. He tried to walk past but the Brotherhood soldiers and Preston blocked the exit.

"Haven't you been paying attention General?" Maxson asked. "You're not leaving the Prydwen alive. Take him into the main deck. Detain him in Paladin Danses former quarters until I can think of a proper and righteous way to dispose of him."

One of the Brotherhood initiates grabbed Nate by the arm and tried to drag him away. Nate grabbed his wrist in a flash and squeezed as hard as he could. The initiate screamed in pain as Nate pulled his modified 10mm pistol from his back pocket.

He pistol whipped the subdued initiate and he fell back against the metal floor. Nate pointed his gun at another Brotherhood soldier who had her finger on the trigger and shot her twice in the chest. She collapsed to the floor in the amount of time it took Nate to place a bullet in the third soldiers forehead.

Preston then took action, he slammed Nate into the glass wall of the observation deck. The two men's weight causing a small crack in the window. Nate jabbed Preston in his good eye and the traitor was sent back a few steps as he tended to his sore eye.

Nate gabbed Preston by the shoulders and slammed him onto the cracked window like he had done to him. When Preston was planted firmly against the glass Nate used the next three bullets in his clip to shoot the window, it shattered and Preston fell back and out of view.

Nate felt a pair of hands grab him and turned to see the initiate who grabbed him, bleeding from where Nates pistol butt had made contact. Nate easily pushed off the man and shot him in the neck. Nate turned to where Elder Maxson once stood only to find that the 'fearless' leader of the Brotherhood had fled.

Nate began to walk out to the flight deck when he heard shuffling and a man groaning. He turned around and saw Preston climbing back inside the observation deck. Once Preston had climbed fully inside he laid on top of the broken glass out of breath.

"Goodbye." Nate simply said. He turned to leave when he heard Preston call out to him.

"Say my name." Nate turned back around to see Preston leaning against the metal bars, a hand applying pressure to a large cut across his abdomen. "You haven't addressed me by my name since you got here. You know it. So say it."

Nate walked closer to the bleeding traitor and looked him straight in the eye before saying his next sentence. "You're name is on the memorial wall, among all the fallen soldiers you betrayed." Nate looked at the guilty expression across Prestons face. "I will have it ripped off and thrown in a bonfire. Goodbye... traitor." Nate turned back and left the command deck.

When he stepped onto the flight deck, it was deserted. Not one Brotherhood lackey in sight. He looked down into the water below. "No way am I surviving that drop." He said to himself. He looked around and saw an unattended vertiberd. He had no other option so he climbed aboard and hopped into the pilot seat.

He had gotten a brief lesson from Sturges about how to drive one of these things so he felt he had d a good chance of not dying a fiery death in a vertiberd wreckage.

He detached from the Prydwen easily and flew off towards the Castle. He had a million thoughts running through his head on the flight back home. Ninety percent of them were about Preston.

That was obviously not the real Preston. It was him physically but not mentally. The Brotherhood had to have done something to alter his mind when they brought him onboard the Prydwen, no way could Preston have that fast of a loyalty and complete moral change.

Or could he? Preston always never wanted to help the settlements in the Commonwealth. He just gave the assignments to Nate, even though he was the General. At the time Nate thought Preston believed it would improve moral to see the General defending Oberland Station from a feral horde.

But maybe Preston just didn't believe the people there were worth his attention. Maybe he had lost faith in the Commonwealth after Quincy and just never faced it until now.

Nate landed on the helipad where MacCready, Danse, Ronnie and Curie were all waiting along with several Minutemen. When Nate landed Curie rushed inside the vertiberd and wrapped her arms around him.

Nate inhaled her scent and felt her warmth that he had missed so much despite being gone for little more than an hour. "I'm so thankful you are alright." They walked out of the vertiberd together. Ronnie and Curie both began asking a million questions without pausing to take breaths. "What happened?" "Did you come to an agreement?" "What are they planning?"

"Hold on!" Nate stopped them. "I'll tell you everything. Including the big twist."

"What big twist?" Curie asked.

"Forget that." MacCready said. "I wanna know how the hell you got out of there alive. Was it a trap?" He asked.

"Yeah. They tried it kill me while I was talking with Maxson."

"I can't believe Arthur. He isn't usually that dirty a player." Danse said.

"Trust me it gets dirtier. But to answer your question Mac, I just hopped on this thing and flew out of there. No resistance after I got out of the command deck." Nate responded

"Why the hell would Maxson and his goons let you go?" MacCready asked, not knowing what answer to expect.

"It's almost as if..." Ronnie muttered.

 _BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!_

Nate turned towards the sky and saw several Brotherhood vertiberds coming from every direction. Brotherhood soldiers stood by the doors firing rockets and mini nukes into the Castle area.

"Shit! Sound the alarm!" Ronnie screamed. "We're under attack! Defensive positions!"

"Goddamnit! They wanted me to leave so they could kill me with the rest of the Minutemen." Nate put together the pieces of the puzzle.

"Well they're not doing it without a fight." MacCready said as he pulled out his hunting rifle. Curie grabbed her combat rifle from her back and Danse aimed his laser rifle.

Nate looked at his companions, pulled out his 10mm and yelled "Let's get 'em!"


	10. The Battle of The Castle

Danse, MacCready, Curie and Nate all stood on the helipad firing blankly at the fleet of hostile vertibirds. Their plain weapons weren't doing much damage to the flying beast. Meanwhile the missile launcher carrying Brotherhood knights were doing a big number on the Castle defenses.

Danse got a lucky shot and sent one vertibird crashing to the ground. It exploded in a burst of fire and sent debris in all directions. MacCready and Curie opened fire on approaching ground forces and sent a few knights and paladins into the ground.

 _I need a bigger gun if I'm gonna do anything to these birds_ Nate thought. He turned to the others on the helipad "Im going to head to the armory and get something stronger! You and the other Minutemen need to push them back as much as you can!"

"Got it!" Danse and MacCready yelled.

Nate found Curie in the firefight and dragged her behind cover to talk to her. He looked her deep in the eyes and said "Whatever happens, I love you."

"I love you too. Be safe my love." Their lips found each other in a passionate kiss. Nate pulled away first and ran into the Castle.

He walked past the destroyed gate and into the burning courtyard. Minutemen and Brotherhood alike were falling everywhere he looked. Vertibird wreckages, bullet shells, laser marks and blood decorated the walls and floor.

Nate spotted a few initiates who had climbed the stone walls and were destroying the turrets lining the wall. Nate aimed and fired, they all fell dead within seconds. Nate also saw a suit power armor charging through the back door past a group of Minutemen desperately trying to hold off the attackers.

He watched the knight raise his Gatling Laser and tear apart the Minutemen. _No way is my 10mm doing anything to that._ Nate searched the ground and found a nuka grenade in the hand of a fallen Minutemen. He grabbed his from the dead mans grasp and chucked it towards the knight.

The knight scrambled hopelessly to get away before the grenade exploded and sent pieces of the knight everywhere. Nate was suddenly launched in the air and landed in a hard pile of dirt and fiery metal. He looked up and saw a Brotherhood knight reloading their missile launcher.

The knight aimed straight for Nate, Nate suddenly couldn't move. It was licked his mind was locked into the sight of the Brotherhood soldier carrying the tool that would bring his demise.

Thankfully Nate was dragged inside the Castle walls before the rocket hit him. Once Nate was safely out of the line of fire he turned to thank his rescuer. He turned and saw the bloodied and dirt covered face of Sturges.

"Thank god you're alive. I thought for sure I'd find you face down in the dirt." Sturges said.

"Sturges! Are you alright? You don't look so good." Nate observed. The Quartermaster had a large gash on his forehead and his overalls were coated with blood around his stomach.

"One of the bastards got a lucky shot. Hit me in the gut before I put some lead in his brain." Sturges cried out in pain and clutched his abdomen.

"Shit we need to get you to the medical area. Then we need to get inside the armory."

Sturges shook his head. "We can't, atleast I can't. The medical area has been overrun. There are Minutemen troops trying hard to push 'me back but they ain't doing much." Sturges groaned again. "Tell ya what. You get me a stimpak or some Med-x and I'll lead you to the weapon I got stashed in the tunnels."

"What do you have in the tunnels that couldn't be kept in the armory? Will it be able to take down these vertibirds?" Nate asked.

Sturges nodded. "It'll do more than take 'em down. And trust me, if Ronnie found out I was building something like this she'd shoot me in the head. Now go get me something to fix this." Sturges yelled as he pointed towards his wound. Nate nodded and ran off to retake the medical center.

Nate ran through the falling apart Castle walls, taking down a few Brotherhood soldiers on the way to the medical area. When he got there he found half a dozen Minutemen outside the door taking cover behind the walls and just as many dead on the floor.

"General!" One of them yelled "Thank god you're here. We need some serious help taking back this place. If we lose this section, we lose access to the stimpaks we need and we may as well consider the Brotherhood victorious!"

"I understand the stakes soldier." Nate replied. "Tell me what we're dealing with. Did you see how many are in there?" Nate asked.

"Atleast six in combat armor and two with those metal suits, all armed to the teeth. We can kill super mutants with pipe rifles but they don't do much against reinforced steel."

"Sure we can, here give me your pipe pistol." Nate asked. The young Minuteman pulled his pipe pistol out of its holster and handed it to Nate. He took it and turned around. The Minutemen couldn't see all of what Nate was doing, but he saw Nate reach into his bag a few times and hammer something inside the pistol.

Nate eventually turned around with no visual changes to the weapon. "What are you doing sir? Nothing's happened."

"Oh believe me this'll do the trick." Nate said. He stood up and tossed the pistol in the medics offices.

The Brotherhood troops took one look at the thrown weapon and began laughing. "That the best you can d-" Suddenly the pistol exploded into a large cloud of smoke. They began coughing and were vulnerable. Nate pulled out his own gun and slowly took out all the soldiers out of power armor. He then ripped off the helmets and shot the other two.

"Damn sir! How'd you make the gun a smoke bomb. And how could you see through the smoke?" The Minuteman asked.

"I learned a few tricks in the military before the Great War. As for the sight issue, I just listened for the coughing and fired in that direction. Now you three," Nate pointed. "Secure this area. Make sure no Brotherhood get in here again. The rest of you head into the courtyard and drive back the ground forces as much as you can. I'll take care of the air threats soon."

The soldiers went off to do as they were ordered and Nate grabbed a stimpak. He ran back to where he left Sturges and found the Boston engineer in exactly the same spot he was left in. "Thank god, I was one minute away from being sucked into that pretty white light." Sturges took the stimpak and injected it into the wounded area.

"Now I feel better. Come on, let's get to the tunnels." Sturges got up and the two ran off to Nates quarters.

They ran down into the dim and wet tunnels. The area was deserted of Brotherhood, which thankfully meant they handed gotten into the west wing and into the armory.

Sturges walked around a bit before his eyes settled on a wooden box about five feet long. "Here it is." He said. He got on one knee and shot of the lock that sealed the box shut. He pulled out the most strange looking piece of machinery Nate had ever seen.

"Sturges, what the hell is that?" Nate asked.

"Built it myself. Borrowed some schematics from that Virgil fella though. It's a weaponized matter eraser, or W.M.E. for short." Sturges looked at Nate who had a confused expression. "It disintegrates anything the beam comes in contact with. And the beam stops moving when it reaches its first object so we don't have to worry about blowing a hole in the Earth."

"Holy shit. How did you make this? How is that possible?" Nate asked while carefully picking up the weapon.

"It was easy. The Institute had apparently been working in these things for a while before we blew it all to shit. Virgil had a copy of the blueprints so once I got my hands on those the rest was pretty easy. Just point this side at those Brotherhood ships and watch them fall. But it has a short range, and NEVER miss." Sturges emphasized. "This thing can do some serious damage so you only want to hit something that wants to kill ya. Now go show them bastards who the hell they messed with."

Nate nodded and ran to the tunnel exit carrying the large gun.

He stepped outside and saw that things had gotten only worse for the Minutemen. Bodies were everywhere and the Brotherhood had all but torn down the walls. Nate saw a vertibird flying about one-hundred feet away. He raised the barrel of the gun and pulled the trigger. A large yellow blinding beam of energy shot from the weapon and tore into the Brotherhood ship. It hit the ground and burst into a fiery blaze.

Several more vertibirds noticed the sudden lose of one of their fleet and began racing towards Nate.

"You fuckers want some more?!" Nate yelled. He easily took down three more before the remaining ships started scrambling to get away.

Nate looked out into the courtyard and aimed his new toy at the attackers. He opened fire and disintegrated entire squads at once.

"Shit! We're getting torn apart! Fall back!" The Brotherhood forces began their retreat. Nate and the rest of the Minutemen easily picked off several more of the fleeing soldiers before no more were in sight.

They all cheered. Except for Nate. He knew that Maxson wasn't going to stop here. If anything he'd hit them harder. They were victorious for now, but Nate knew that would soon change.

 **Three hours later**

Maxson stood at the observation deck. A piece of plywood had been put over the broken window until the glass could be properly fixed. Ingram, Teagen, Cade, Quinlan, Preston, and Captain Kells all stood behind him along with a female Paladin.

"Paladin-commander Wynters." Maxson addressed. "You were the commander of the forces charged with wiping out the Minutemen presence at the Castle, is that correct?" Maxson asked.

"Yes Elder." The female responded with a hint of fear in her voice.

"Would you care to tell me why you and your men could not stand against farmers and scavvers?" Maxson demanded.

"Well Elder. The Battle was in our favor in the beginning. We took them by suprise and our air advantage overwhelmed their defenses." Wynters said.

"Yet I still see the Minutemen flag above Ft. Indepedence." Maxson replied.

"Unfortunately." Wynters continued "They took down a good number of our fleet with some kind of weapon. I've never seen anything like it sir. Not even from the Institute. It tore apart our vertibirds like they were tissue paper. I don't even want to recall what it did to our ground troops. I was forced to call a retreat to keep our losses from growing." Wynters finished.

Maxson turned from the glass walls and looked at Preston. Preston nodded, understanding the order Maxson visually gave him. Garvey pulled his laser pistol from his holster, and activate it. Maxson turned back towards Wynters.

"I don't care if they had an army of Deathclaws. You failed Paladin-commander Wynters. From now on, failure is not an option. We have been too undisciplined and lenient and because of it we were beaten by uneducated buffoons. The Brotherhood has no place for the weak links like you Wynters." Preston raised his pistol and blew apart Wynters skull.

The Proctors looked in horror at the glowing red wound in the former Paladin-commanders head, while Maxson, Garvey and Kells looked at it with satisfaction.

"The plans for the Commonwealth have been slightly changed. The plan will proceed while the Minutemen are still active, we cannot waste anytime." Maxson ordered.

"Kells, ready our forces. Ingram and Teagen, get our soldiers outfitted for battle. Quinlan, find any information on what weapon the Minutemen used. Cade, return to your duties in the medical bay. Garvey, you'll be leading the next group of Brotherhood into battle."

"May I ask where that'll be Elder?" Preston asked.

"I'll think over it and get back to you. It will most likely be one of the major cities, once those are all taken out the rest of the Commonwealth will fall easily." Maxson said. "It is time for the fun to begin."


	11. Counting Losses

Two days after the Brotherhoods attack on the Castle, Curie still had not seen Nate since they departed during the battle. Nate had simply been too busy, overseeing repairs, trying hard to improve moral, adding several names to the memorial wall. And taking one off.

She wanted to change that. So she walked through the Castle hallways towards his room. She got their to find both doors open. Sturges and Ronnie were both inside talking to Nate who was slumped down in a wooden chair holding a bottle of whiskey.

"How many people exactly did we lose?" Nate asked.

"Thirteen General." Ronnie said sadly.

"That's not too bad, the-" Nate responded.

"That's just the civilian casualties sir." Ronnie stopped him.

"Oh. Shit." Nate took a big and long swig from the bottle. He set the bottle down on the floor and looked around hopelessly. Curie felt horrible seeing him like this. The man who had always been her rock, someone she could rely on, the one who had her heart, was hurting. She wanted to do anything she could to help him.

"We lost atleast sixty-seven brave men and women that night. More than half of the Minutemen we had in duty here. We can't find the remains of three others." Ronnie said. Her arms fell to her sides and her head hung low.

"Sturges. How long before we can repair all the damage caused in the battle?" Nate asked, hoping to get some good news.

"We have plenty of spare parts from the crashed vertibirds. We would've had more of some of them weren't vaporized. But I built the weapon that caused that so I won't get angry. With the additional parts it should take me and what's left of my team atleast one or two weeks to get the turrets and other machines back online."

"Okay. That's not too bad. I want all available Minutemen sent to the Castle. We need to be ready in case the Brotherhood tries something else." Nate said.

"I've sent recruiters to Diamond City, Goodneighbor, Far Harbor, Bunker Hill, Vault eighty-one, Nuka World, even the goddamn Crater of Atom. I doubt any of the rad-waters will helps us though. But the other cities should bring in more recruits to help us regain our losses." Ronnie reported.

"Good work Ronnie." Nate said

"I've also made contact with the Railroad, Tinker Tom is sending anything he can spare. Same goes for Dima in Acadia and Isabel Cruz." Sturges said.

"Excellent. We'll need all the help we can get to fight the Brotherhood. Dismissed." Nate finished.

The two Minutemen saluted and walked out the door and past Curie. She slipped by them and felt herself being pulled inside the room.

Nate shut the doors and turned to kiss his love. They kissed passionately until they had to stop and take a breath.

"I'm so glad you're alright. I was so worried about you during the battle." Nate kissed her again. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to talk with you. I've been swamped after the attack." Nate walked to pick up his empty whiskey bottle.

Curie looked at the table and saw the plaque belonging to Preston. It had several bullet holes, knifes stick in it, and a few black marks indicating it had been burned. "Why did you do this to Monsieur Garvey's plaque. Do you have no respect for him?" Curie asked angrily.

"Oh. Right I haven't told you. Turns out Preston is alive." Nate revealed.

"What? How is that possible?!" Curie asked. "He was in the blast radius of a fat man! How does one survive such a thing?"

"Brotherhood of Steel came to the rescue. Now Preston works for them and is Elder Maxsons personal attack dog. Oh, and he tried to kill me." Nate said.

"What! Why would Preston do something like that? He has hated the Brotherhood ever since the Prydwen arrived in the Commonwealth." Curie recalled her memories with Preston. She'd often find him on the wall of the Castle or on the roof of his house in Starlight, smoking a cigarette and looking at theP Prydwen through his scope.

"I'm one-hundred percent sure the messed with his mind while stitching up his wounds. Preston could never betray us like that." Nate said. He glanced at the torn apart plaque and felt a mix of fury and despair.

His face must have shown his feelings well because Curie took his hand with her own and used the other to turn his face to hers. "Enough of the sad things. Let us rejoice in the fact that we got out of this endeavor alive and together." She kissed him, the kiss was slower and more sensual that any of the others they had shared in their relationship. Or the one game of truth or dare in Starlight a year ago. That was when Nate stopped letting Piper pick his dares.

"I love you so much. Never forget that." She said.

Nate grabbed her hand resting on his cheek. "I love you too. You're the only thing keeping me going right now." He kissed the top of her head, Curie loved when he did that. It made her feel like she was melting.

 **Elsewhere in the Commonwealth...**

Preston rode in the Brotherhood vertibird flying over downtown Boston. He was donned in top of the line T-60 Brotherhood power armor. He looked towards the large fleet behind him and felt a feeling of duty. He thought the Brotherhood soldiers were a mix of degenerates and douches. He was the only among them who could do this job. Maxson should of just sent him.

The lights of Diamond City came into sight, Preston tossed on his helmet. He activated his headset to communicate with the other troops. "We're nearing our target. Prepare to drop."

Several staticky 'Rogers' cane through the headset as Preston readied his laser rifle. The vertibird flew over the market area of Diamond City, he jumped out of the side of the bird and landed in the dirt covered plywood walkway of the city.

"Alrigh boys, let's bring the pain. Remember, no survivors, no mercy."

 **I'm going on vacation for a few days so this'll be the last chapter till the weekend**


	12. Marching into Battle

Danse stood by the radio tower talking with the operator. The wind was particularly fierce that day, so much so you could barely stand up outside. And Danse was never much of a drinker after he joined the Brotherhood so he didn't want to hang out in the bar.

"So..." Danse tried to make conversation to make him standing in the small shack less awkward. "How does this thing work exactly?" He asked.

"Hell I don't know. I just push the buttons that the man in the overalls tells me to." The operator quickly dismissed Danse and his question.

"What the hell?" The operator muttered to himself. He grabbed the headset and listened in on an incoming frequency.

Danse grew concerned at the operators sudden change of ease. "What's going on?" He asked.

"I'm picking up a looped message from downtown. It's not strong but I think if I..." the operator messed around with some buttons and dials on the radio. "There we are. It's coming from Diamond City."

"What's it saying?" Danse asked. The operator unplugged the headset so that Danse could hear the message clearly.

"This is an emergency message to the Castle. We need all the Minutemen you can spare! The Brotherhood is here and they're killing everyone!" The sound of laser rifles and ballistic weapons in the background were getting louder. "Shit! Keep them away from the door!" _Boom!_ "Fuck! Hold them off as long as you can! Please! We need every single man you got he-" the sound of a laser rifle going off was the last sound Danse and the operator heard before a small voice said. " _This message will repeat."_

"Jesus Christ! Alert the General now!" The operator yelled. Danse turned and ran inside the Castle and into the Generals quarters.

Danse burst through the door, startling both Nate and Curie, who were both pressed against each other on the stone wall. Dance was able to catch a small glimpse of Nate seemingly sucking at her neck like a bloodthirsty vampire.

"Nate!" Danse yelled. "We just got a radio transmission from Diamond City. The Brotherhood's attacking Diamond City!"

"What?!" Nate yelled. He stepped away from Curie, whose face appeared to be half concerned for the people of Diamond City and half missing Nate's warm electric lips on her neck. "Maxson said he wasn't going through with the plan until we were gone." Nate started pacing around the room. His face was filled with pure panic and deep-thought.

"Has Ronnie heard about this yet?" Nate asked.

"The radio operator went to go find her. She'll be rallying the troops the second she does find out, I'm sure." Nate stormed out the door, grabbing his rifle on the way out. Danse and Curie followed him out, both readying their weapons too.

The three walked out into the courtyard. They saw Ronnie standing in front of a large group of Minutemen, all with faces filled with varied amounts of fear.

"Lets show these steel-eaters that no matter where in the Commonwealth they decide to attack, we will be there to defend the innocent!'" Ronnie began to finish up a motivational speech to inspire a little courage into the inexperienced troops. "And lets shove their fancy power armor up their tight-asses, piece by piece!"

The soldiers raised their guns in the air and cheered, but it was still clear they were almost paralyzed with dread of the upcoming battle. MacCready stepped out the door of his usual hangout, the bar, and joined his three friends in the courtyard. "You guys ready to go?" The merc asked.

"We ain't got much choice." Nate said. "The longer we spend here the longer the Brotherhood is able to wreck havoc on Diamond City."

"I know, I know." MacCready said. The four began walking out the gate behind the larger force of Minutemen. "But you gotta admit some of those City assholes have it coming."

Curie whipped her head towards MacCready in shock. "How can you say that? The people in the upper-stands are less than pleasant but they do not deserve death!"

She began hitting him and he slightly recoiled in pain after each punch.

"Jesus, stop! Stop it! I'm sorry for saying that some people deserved to die." MacCready said.

"Stop bickering you two, otherwise this is going to be a long trip." Danse cut in.

"Are none of you taking this seriously?" Nate asked. "The Brotherhood is currently killing innocent people, and we are here acting like kids. No more talking until we drive the Brotherhood out of Diamond City. Alright?"

The other hung their heads low with feelings of shame and embarrassment. "Yes." They all said.

"Alright, now come on. We're not letting one Brotherhood member walk out of there alive."

 **Sorry this chapter came late and is so short. I haven't had any free time this week. Went to Silverwood in Idaho with a few friends, got a sunburn on my back and it hurts like hell.**


	13. The Battle of Diamond City

Soon the Minutemen began to get close enough to the city to hear the fighting and see the smoke from buildings that had been set ablaze.

Nate and his companions lead the group of Minutemen through the unusually deserted streets of the city. The silence was setting off both Nate and Danses soldier instincts, making them extremely paranoid while marching towards the great green jewel.

Eventually the group made it to the corner of the former stadium furthest from the gate. Nate ushered the forces inside some of the nearby buildings. He pulled Ronnie aside and ordered her to send some scouts towards the gate so they could know what they would be dealing with when they entered the city.

An hour passed by after Ronnie sent the few men and women out to get a look at the Brotherhood presence before they returned.

"Here you are General, these are the findings of the recon team." An older male soldier said as he handed Nate a few ripped up papers.

"Thank you Soldier. Dismissed." Nate said as he began looking over the reports.

Danse, MacCready, Curie, Ronnie and Sturges all looked over Nates shoulder to read the reports. Unfortunately Nate was a much faster reader than all of them so he was able to go through them quickly.

"Looks like there's a light Brotherhood presence outside the city, most of the forces are inside the wall. If we split up and head down the two roads we could take out all the outside forces eliminate the possibility of the outside Brotherhood forces from flanking us inside the city." Nate proposed.

"Sounds like as good a plan as any General. I'll take half of these schmucks down the east road, you take the rest and head west." Ronnie said.

"Alright. Danse and Sturges, you two go with her. MacCready and Curie, you're with me." Nate turned to the large mass of soldiers and directed half of them to Ronnie and the other half to him. Each group consisted of about thirty well armed soldiers, so both teams should've been able to easily tackle any Brotherhood troops encountered on the way to the gate.

Before Ronnie took off, Nate handed her a portable radio. "You left yours at the Castle. I thought I told you to always have it on you." Nate said as he handed the woman the walkie talkie.

"I'm getting old General," Ronnie said. "Not my fault I just can't remember like I used to."

"Yet when I owe you money or a drink you never forget it." Nate remarked. "Anyway, if you find yourself in a situation your team can't handle, radio me and we'll head over to assist."

"Understood General. See you at the gate." Ronnie said before joining her team.

Nate, Curie and MacCready lead the twenty seven Minutemen through the deserted streets and into the crowded junkyard. Nate turned to the soldiers and said "Alright, we hit them fast and hard. I don't want to give them any chances to let the soldiers inside know we're here. Got it?"

The group nodded and silently murmered in agreement. Nate strapped his combat rifle to his back, pulled out his 10mm pistol and attached a silencer to the barrel of the weapon. He crouched down and slowly moved through the thick junkyard.

He spotted a Brotherhood scribe about ten yards from him. The scribe was aiming a laser rifle in the opposite direction and mutterering to himself. Nate aimed for the head and fired. The silenced weapon barely making a sound as the bullet hit its target with deadly precision.

The scribe fell to the ground as Nate and his group made their way forward. Occasionally one of them taking out a Brotherhood lackey.

Soon the group arrived at the gate. The gate was found to be heavily guarded. Brotherhood Paladins guarded the gate with Gatling lasers armed and ready to turn any hostile into ash. Several initiates scanned the surrounding area looking for any signs of trouble.

Nate spotted Ronnies group emerge from the shadows. Nate made eye contact with Ronnie and motioned for her team to get ready. Ronnie understood and ordered her group to change from silenced weapons to their regular guns.

Nate holstered his 10mm and grabbed his combat rifle. He checked to make sure the weapon was fully loaded before signaling Ronnie to charge.

Both groups stormed the gate at the same time. Taking the initiates off guard for a moment and causing them to gain the upper hand.

Nate mowed down a few soldiers and scribes who were hopelessly trying to recover from the ambush. MacCready was able to take out a knight-commander with his bayonet. Danse struck down a scribe who got to close. Curie tossed a grenade and sent several pieces of Brotherhood soldier flying through the air.

The power armored paladins were able to regain their bearings quickly however, and started firing their weapons at the Minutemen soldiers.

Blindingly bright red lasers filled the air as the Minutemen shot back, hoping that eventually the bullets would make it through the power armor.

Soon the Paladins weren't able to take any more and collapsed in a heap on the brick floor. The Minutemen charged through the gate with Nate taking the lead.

When Nate walked into the threshold of Diamond City, it was nothing like he recognized. Black smoke filled the air due to several of the wooden and metal shacks being up in flames. The large stadium lights that towered over the city were all shut off, along with the street lights, indicating that the Brotherhood had cut the cities powerBodies littered the streets, almost none of them were Brotherhood. Danse and MacCready looked shocked while Curie threw up of the side of the metal stairs.

Nate instinctively comforted her as she upheaved into the bushes below. A Brotherhood knight noticed the arriving Minutemen and took advantage of the Generals vulnerability. She opened fire and took out one soldier before Ronnie unloaded her pipe rifle into the knight.

The commotion caused several more Brotherhood to charge into the market area. Nate shielded Curie as both sides began raining fire on their opponents.

"What do we do?" Curie asked.

"We should find a way to the mayors office. I'm sure Mayor Geneva has gathered any survivors there." Nate said optimistically. His hope disappeared however as the window above them shattered due to the body of newly-elected mayor Geneva being thrown through the glass. She landed on the metal railing causing the air to be filled with a sick crack before her lifeless body flopped into the bushes.

"Scratch that." Nate said. He ushered Curie out of the line of fire and into the alley leading to the Dugout Inn. They ducked inside the dugout, hiding from the Brotherhood soldiers. Unfortunately they were met with several soldiers who were working to knock down the door leading inside the inn. Nate grabbed his automatic combat rifle from his back just before the knights noticed him. He filled three of the five soldiers with lead before he had to change his clip. While he was reloading Curie was able to take down the last two.

"Why were they trying to get inside the inn?" Curie asked. She quickly looked through the dead Brotherhood troops pockets and took anything that might have been useful.

"There must be survivors in there." Nate said as he approached the door. He tried turning the door handle to find it locked. "Should've known it'd be locked." Nat embittered to himself. Curie kept a look out for incoming Brotherhood as Nate knocked on the door.

"Go away! We're not letting any of you Brotherhood bastards in here!" The familiar voice of Nate's old friend, Nick Valentine, said muffle through the door.

"Nick? That you?" Nate asked.

"Nate? Shit, I thought Curtis wasn't able to reach the Castle. I'll get this door open for you." Nate heard the sound of several heavy objects being moved around the narrow hallway. A minute later the door opened and Nate was meet with the metal face and glowing eyes of Nick Valentine.

"Good to see you again Valentine." Nate said as Nick showed Nate and Curie inside.

"You to Nate. I wish it were under better circumstances." Nick said as he covered the door with the couch, tables, and drawers that cluttered the hallway.

"What exactly has happened?" Nate asked as him,Nick and Curie strolled down the dark hallway.

"About four hours ago, a bunch of those vertibirds flew over the city. Then before anyone knew what was happening, power armor wearing soldiers dropped from the sky and started opening fire on anything that was moving. Anyone who was in the market area at the time had no chance of getting out alive." Nick lead the two others into the bar, the place had lost its usual happy and relaxing feeling and had become even more depressing.

Several people were lying on the floor or against the wall with an assortment of injuries covering their bodies, ranging from broken bones to bullet holes. "Everyone else wasn't much more lucky. The Brotherhood cut the power to the city. it was everything me and Piper could do to lead these people here to safety." Nick said.

"Piper? I thought she had moved out of the city." Nate asked.

"Hey Blue, I came down to the city yesterday because I needed a few parts to fix the printing press. I remembered I had left what would do the job with Nick after I moved me and Nat to Starlight." Piper said. "Right after I walked into his office we heard shouting and gunfire. Then the lights went out and that leads us to here." She finished.

"Shit. How are we gonna drive out these assholes out of town?" Nate asked.

"I think the first step in driving out the Brotherhood would be getting the power back on." Nick said. "Unfortunately I have no idea where the generator is." He finished.

"Well thats kind of a slightly big roadblock." Piper remarked.

"What about Abbot?" Curie asked.

"What about him?" Piper responded.

"Well, you told me that he did all the repairs and mechanical work in Diamond City? He could have the blueprints of the city on him or in his residence." Curie said.

"Thats not a bad idea." Nick said. "Sadly, his body is laying outside my office. And that alley is filled with Brotherhood."

"Well shit. Well it's our only option, so lets take anyone skilled and healthy enough to use a gun and head to you office." Nate proposed.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll ask if anyone here feels like taking on some Brotherhood." Nick said as he walked away.

"We should regroup with Ronnie, Mac, Danse and Sturges." Nate said. "They're probably still fighting off Brotherhood in the market."

 **Ten minutes later**

Nate, Curie, Nick, Piper, Vadim Bobrov, MacCready, Ronnie, Hawthorne, Danse, Sturges and Ellie Perkins walked through the humid and dark alley with their weapons raised. Whenever a Brotherhood soldier entered their sights they were quick to take them down.

"Well Nick, this is your office. Now where's Abbot?" MacCready asked.

"Nate turn on your Pip-Boy light. Me, Sturges and Curie will look around for Abbot. The rest of you cover us." Nick said as he crouched down and began looking around.

Curie, Sturges and Nick looked around while the rest took cover by the wall and aimed down the separate alleyways. Nate aimed down the alley leading to the market. He and the others opened fire on the incoming Brotherhood while the other side did the same.

Nate aimed for the chest of a paladin in BoS combat armor. He opened fire and the paladin hit the dirt hard. Hawthorne hit a scribe in the knee and took the time she spent on the ground tending to her wound to hit another initiate in the temple before Ronnie finished her off. "We need help over here!" MacCready yelled. Nate turned and saw at least three soldiers charging through the alley with a power armor wearing paladin stomping behind them.

"How's the search going Nick?!" Nate yelled as he began firing at the attackers.

"Theres a lot of bodies down here Nate I need more time!" Nick yelled back.

"We don't exactly have that luxury! Hurry up!" Nate said. Hawthorne tried to get a shot at the paladins head. The bullet measly bounced off the steel helmet before the paladin aimed his laser sniper rifle at Hawthornes forehead. Hawthorne went down with a blast of red light as the paladin aimed for his next target.

Nate followed the paladins glance and the aim of his rifle to Curie, who was searching the ground and had her back turned. Nate's protective instincts instantly went off as he charged towards the seven foot metal beast. He knocked the laser rifle out of the paladins hands, the others stopped shooting and stared in awe as Nate ripped the helmet off and started busting in the paladins skull with the butt of his own weapon.

Once the paladin was long dead, Nate relaxed and felt his adrenaline rush recede. He turned and saw the others staring. Nick raised his hand, revealing a folded paper. "I uh... I found the blueprints we needed. We can override the Brotherhoods emergency shutdown from the mayors terminal."

"Well then... Lets get to that office." Nate said. The group began to walk into the market and towards the elevator to the mayors office. Piper walked side-by-side with Nate and began to make conversation."

"So... Blue... What was that all about?" Piper asked.

"Piper this isn't exactly the best time to talk." Nate said as he scanned the area, he shot an occupied initiate as Piper continued.

"That paladin was aiming right at Curie. That's when you went all pyscho killer. Whats that about?" Piper inquired teasingly.

"You can't taunt me about Curie anymore Piper, we're together now." Nate shutdown any hopes the reporter had about continuing the constant teasing Nate had endured from both her and Mac in the past months.

"What? When did that happen?" Piper asked.

"I'll tell you all the juicy details later Piper, but right now just focus on killing these Brotherhood guys." Nate ordered.

The group arrived at the elevator shortly. "Damnit." Nick cursed. "I thought they only cut out the lights."

"How're we getting up to the office?" Nate asked. He grabbed the city schematics from Nick and began looking over the papers. "Theres a ladder up to the mayors office from the Colonial Taphouse."

"Lets go then." MacCready said as he hopped over the wooden fence and over the metal railing. The others followed him into the upper-stands. Nate looked at the bloody corpses of the rich pricks, and their robot servant Wellingham.

They pushed open the door to the Taphouse and found it in the same bloody mess the rest of the city was. Nate searched through the entire room and found no ladder.

"Where's the fucking ladder?" Nate cursed as he did a second useless sweep of the bar.

"It's in here somewhere." Vadim said.

"Oh, thanks Bobrov that's real fucking helpful." Nate sarcastically said. He picked up a chair and threw it against the wall. It hit the large shelf behind the bar, which came tumbling down revealing a small dirt area with a rusted ladder.

"Well. Waddya know." Nick said as he hopped over the shelf and started climbing the ladder. The others followed him and one by one they ascended into the reception area.

Nate started walking into the office area, but he stopped when he heard familiar voices.

"What's going on done there knight?" Preston asked.

"Minutemen and Brotherhood are still fighting in the market, alley, and farm areas." Knight Rhys reported. "From what I can see there are more Minutemen casua-"

"I don't want to hear about the pattle." Preston cut him off. "Where's the trouble group?"

"Oh. I spotted them heading into the Colonial Taphouse about two minutes ago. Don't know what they expect to find in there." Knight Rhys finished.

Nate peeked around the door, he saw a scribe working on the terminal, two initiates loading and unloading their weapons in an effort to end their boredom, Preston standing tall in a suit of T-60 power armor, and Knight Rhys standing by the window with a pair of binoculars.

"Give me an update as soon as you see any sign of them again." Preston ordered. Rhys saluted and set his eyes on the upper-stands.

Nate ushered everyone over, they took cover behind the doors and readied their weapons. "On three we charge. One... two... t-" Several laser shots took the group by suprise. Multiple Brotherhood soldiers had spotted them and began opening fire. Nate ran inside and the others followed guns blazing.

Nate tackled Rhys to the ground. He was ready to do the same thing it Rhys as he had done to the earlier paladin, but Rhys pushed him off. Nate regained his bearings as Rhys reached for his laser pistol. Nate grabbed the knights wrist and tried to overpower Rhys. Rhys head butted the General and sent him back a few steps. While Rhys was approaching Nate searched the drawers of a nearby desk. He found a switchblade and quickly plunged it into the shoulder of Knight Rhys.

Rhys screamed in pain, Nate kept his grip on the blade and began pushing Rhys towards the window. Rhys was too weak to stop Nate as he was tossed through the window. The glass shattered and Rhys fell to his death, landing right on top of Geneva.

"Where's Garvey?" Nate asked.

"Garvey? I thought I knew that voice was familiar." Nick said. "He went down that hallway. He locked himself in the mayors quarters bu-" A big metal hulk cane charging down the hallway, throwing Ellie and Sturges to the wall. The suit of power armor bore through Nick and Nate and jumped through the window. Nate looked down and saw Preston remove his helmet and stare back at him. Nate should've shot him right there, but he didn't. He couldn't.

Preston walked right out of Diamond City and into the ruins of Boston. He waved down a Brotherhood vertibird, which picked him up and flew him away towards the Prydwen.

"Are you kidding me?! We had him! Why'd you let him go?" Danse yelled.

"I just couldn't. Alright. I just froze." Nate said. He pressed his hand to his face and massaged his temples. "It doesn't matter now. Sturges, get the power back on. The rest of you help the other clear out the remaining Brotherhood and extinguish those fires."

The group began to make their way down below to the market. Nate walked to the glass window and began staring out into the smoky sky of the Commonwealth. He wondered why he didn't just take his rifle and execute Preston while he was on the ground. Maybe he had too much history with the man. By that wasn't the man he knew before, so why did he hesitate?

He felt a hand place itself on his back, he turned and saw the sparkling eyes of his love. Curie kissed him and he felt his worry and stress temporarily dissapear while he focused on her.

 **Thirty minutes later**

"The attack in Diamond City was a partial victory for us Elder." Preston reported. "My scribes estimate that we were able to eliminate atleast ninety two percent of the total population."

"Then why is it a partial victory?" Elder Maxson asked, strangely sounding more patient than when talking with Wynters a few days earlier.

"Minutemen forces arrived and were able to drive us out. Our casualty numbers are about twenty six percent." Preston said hopelessly. Elder Maxson had said that failure was no longer acceptable, and he felt the same impending fate coming to him that Wynters met.

"Well... Paladin Garvey, our objective was still completed and we didn't lose a great majority of troops so I'll consider this a success. Dismissed." Maxson finished.

Preston was shocked at the Elders leniency. He didn't give Maxson a chance to change his mind as he turned and speed-walked to his quarters.

Kells approached the Elder and asked "May I ask why you spared Garvey the punishment agreed upon after the battle of the Castle?"

Elder Maxson slowly turned to the Captain. "Because." He said. "Garvey is our secret weapon. Nate still sees him as his old friend, we're going to use that to our advantage."


	14. Third Party

Nate woke up to the harsh sound of clanging metal. He forced his heavy eyes to part, revealing MacCready standing in the doorway to his room at the Castle hitting a large pan with a spoon.

"Wake up sleepyhead." MacCready said as he continued hitting the metal cookware, despite seeing Nate was now awake. "Time to go to school."

"Why are you doing this?" Nate asked with a tired and weak voice. He looked to his side to find that Curie had already woken and had left their quarters.

"I know you're tired after what happened at Diamond City, but like it or not we are in a war. And we can't sleep through those." MacCready said as he stepped further inside the room. Nate stood up from his bed and went to his wardrobe to grab an outfit. "Believe me, that pan thing was nowhere near as bad as the way Ronnie woke me up. So you should be thanking me."

"Go to hell Mac." Nate said.

MacCready shook his head and laughed. "I've shot people for less than that remark, but I know you're tired and stressed so I'll let it slide." He began to leave the room to allow Nate some privacy while he changed out of his sleepwear. "Oh. Before I forget why I came here, Ronnie wants you to meet her in the armory as soon as possible. Catch ya later." MacCready shut the door behind him as he left.

Nate smiled to himself. Though MacCready was best described as an ass, there was nobody Nate trusted more. Besides Curie of course. MacCready was one of the first people Nate travelled with when he emerged from the vault, and he has stuck around since. Both of them had each other backs, from Nate helping Mac get the cure for Duncan to MacCready joining the Minutemen and becoming one of Nates most trusted advisors.

The two had been through all kinds of hell together. And despite MacCready being less than charming sometimes, Nate was willing to forgive it in exchange for the merc's company and skills while traveling.

Once Nate had changed into his normal attire, he retired from his chambers and walked to the armory. When he stepped out of the courtyard, he noticed a large increase in the number of people in the recruiting area and training yards. He wondered about the sudden rise in recruits while he stepped into the armory. He saw Ronnie looking over the table, attempting to read several reports from different settlements at a time while also listening to one of the guards giving the daily inventory count.

Once she noticed the General arrive she dismissed the soldier and tried to separate herself from her work for a small moment. "Good morning General." She said. "I have good news and bad news. Which would you prefer to hear first?" She asked.

"I'm in the mood for some good news." Nate answered. "After Diamond City and MacCready's rude awakening I could use a day brightener."

Ronnie scoffed. "Whatever he did to you I can garuntee I topped it." She said as if she was issueing a challenge.

"He mentioned that. What exactly did you do to wake him up?" Nate asked, almost fearing the answer.

Ronnie began laughing slightly as she recalled the memory. "I got one of the recruits to help me lift his bed up very quietly. We took him out back and threw him in the water." She was laughing hard now, holding her stomach as if it were going to burst.

"Bloody hell Ronnie, that's just cruel." Nate said shocked. But after what MacCready did, interrupting Nate's dream about a certain synth girl... It was hard for Nate to feel bad.

"Eh." Ronnie shrugged off her cruel treatment of her comrades. "Anyway, the good news is that I'm sure you've noticed the large amounts of new arrivals in the courtyard." Ronnie pointed in the direction of the crowds. "After what the Brotherhood did in Diamond City, people are now beginning to see them for the bastards they truly are. And they're just running straight here to give the Brotherhood a good kick in the ass."

"Alright. That is good. But... what's the bad news?" Nate asked dreadfully. Ronnie sighed.

"The bad news is that almost all settlement under our protection are sending reports of Brotherhood sightings nearby. If we don't hit the Brotherhood hard soon, then everything from Starlight Drive-In to Oberland Station is gonna be turned into a damn parking lot." Ronnie scratched her head and sighed in frustration again.

"Technically..." Nate said. "Starlight is already a parking lot." Nate joked and regretted it instantly when he saw Ronnies glare.

"I will rip that tongue out of your smart mouth if you make one more joke." Nate shut his mouth tightly, knowing that it wouldn't be the first time Ronnie had corrected some comedian recruit.

"There is a silver lining however." She continued. "A letter came for you from Mayor Hancock in Goodneighbor. I hope you don't mind but I had a peek at what he wrote." She handed him the torn open envelope with the letter inside. "He wants to meet with you whenever you can, says he has a lead on some Brotherhood project going on near Goodneighbor."

"Did he give any other details?" Nate asked as he looked over the letter from his old friend.

"Nope. I gotta tell you General, after our last experience with meetings I'm not exactly sure about Hancock true intentions." Ronnie accused.

"No. Hancock is no Maxson or Preston, we've been friends for a long time. He wouldn't do anything. Plus he hates the Brotherhood, so now that we're trying to take them down I'm not surprised he wants to join in." Nate said. "I'll gather some gear, grab Curie and Mac and head to Goodneighbor tomorrow." He turned and left the armory, the recruit who was sent outside was listening by the door and rushed past him to continue their work in the armory.

He began to walk into the courtyard before he heard a muffled groan coming from inside the Castle walls. "Ugh..." it sounded like the source of the noise was dying. Nate spotted a corner of stacked a crates, he walked over and the groan became louder. He looked behind the boxes to find Danse in a fetal position on the cold stone floor surrounded by bottles of liquor.

"Danse?" Nate tried to rouse the man awake from alchohol induced state.

A low moan escaped from the former paladin as he seemed to wake. "Ugh. Please sir... not so loud." He stood up very slowly, he rubbed his temple and peeled his eyes open.

"I thought you didn't drink." Nate said.

"I have for a while. Ever since this whole thing with the Brotherhood started and you left for Quincy, I've hardly been able to get a good nights sleep without the help of some type of liquor." Danse said.

"Well," Nate said. "I've got some addictol in my room if you ever need it." He began walking away before Danse interrupted his departure again.

"I can't figure it out." He said plainly. Danse sat on of the crates staring blankly at his feet. "I can't figure out how Maxson became this... whatever monster he is now."

Nate shrugged. "People change Danse. It's been a long time since you were exiled, and Maxson wasn't exactly sane to begin with."

"Sure Maxson had a screw loose but he always talked about protecting people." Danse looked up. "Now he wants to kill them? It just doesn't make sense." He got up and began pacing around the small storage area. "There's gotta be some third party involved. Someone who's manipulating the situation and playing us like puppets."

"I don't know the full picture Danse." Nate said. "All I know is that Maxson is our enemy. And he had to be stopped." Nate left the hungover Danse to his theories and went back to his quarters.

When he got there he found Curie waiting for him, with her was Piper. The two were talking so much that they didn't notice him at first. Curie saw him first out of the two, she ran up to him fast and jumped into his arms, nearly sending them both crashing to the floor.

"Jesus Curie... I love you too, but you're kinda putting me in a choke hold." Nate stammered out. Piper laughed as Nate tried to shake out of Curie's iron grip around him. Eventually she ceased her assault and hopped off of Nate.

"Curie was just filling me on all the juicy details I missed while you were away. That little confession was so cute." Piper giggled as Nate blushed. "I can see you two want some private time so I'm gonna take off. See ya."

Immediately after Piper closed the door, Nate captured Curie's lips in a passionate kiss. Curie ran her hands through his coarse hair, she moaned loudly as he slipped his tongue in her mouth. He pulled back and said "You need to stop giving her more ammo. She has a bad see of loose lips."

"I don't care who knows about us Nate. I love you and I want the whole world to know it." Curie said with the biggest smile possible on her face. Nate's heart practically melted. He felt like he had to go kill a Deathclaw to restore his manhood for blushing at the cheesiness of the situation. _What did I ever do to deserve this girl?_

 **Meanwhile at the Boston Airport**

"Proctor Quinlan," Maxson said with his usual commanding voice. "I assume your project in downtown is going well?" He asked.

Quinlan stood in the Observation deck shaking with fear. "Y-yes Elder. My field scribes have reported that they are well in their way to retrieving the artifact I told you about."

"Good. But... Proctor." Quinlan breath hitched. "If this doesn't work, or turns out to be a false rumor, there will be a punishment." Maxson stood close to Quinlan and raised his fist in order to convey his point.

"Understood Elder. But I assure you, this is real and it will win us this war." Quinlan said.

"I hope your right. Dismissed." Elder Maxson said as he turned back to the window. Quinlan sped out of the observation deck as quickly as possible. He accidentally collided with an initiate on the way to the ladder.

"Mind yourself!" Quinlan scolded, although the accident was clearly his fault.

"My apologies Proctor." The initiate apologized. Quinlan found the mans tone to be strange. He sounded like he had no emotion and was artificial.

The two walked in separate directions, Quinlan left to get it work in his office while the initiate isolated himself on the far end of the flight deck. He looked around to make sure he was alone, before pulling out a small communication device. He pressed the power button and almost immediately a voice barked "Report."

"Everything's is going to plan ma'am. The Brotherhood and Maxson are doing exactly what we wanted." The spy said.

"Good. And what of the Minutemen? Any news about them?" The voice asked.

"Negative. I haven't had a chance to infiltrate their headquarters just yet, but I'll get inside. Don't worry." The initiate concluded.

"Excellent. Report again once you receive news on the Minutemens activities. Until then we'll be keeping our eyes on you." The voice said.

"Roger that. Signing off." The initiate said before clicking off the device and strutting back inside the main deck.


	15. Mayor Hancock

Nate and Curie woke early in the morning to prepare for the trip to Goodneighbor. When they were well supplied and weapon-in-hand, they still had to track down MacCready who hadn't woken yet in the past hour they had spent getting ready.

Though they spent the morning going through checklists of supplies, Mac simply grabbed his rifle from the side of his bed and said "Let's go." Curie and Nate exchanged glances as MacCready walked slowly ahead of them towards the gate. They followed him outside the Castle and began the walk towards Goodneighbor. The harbor next to the Castle reeked like dead fish and piss. Nate and Mac began speed walking towards the city to escape the stench sooner, while Curie slipped on a medical mask an kept walking her normal pace.

"You carry one of those around?" MacCready asked as he plugged his nose shut.

"Of course. A medical professional must always be prepared, like how you carry extra grenades." Curie said muffled through the fabric.

"I carry grenades because they can blow some Raiders into pieces easily. You carry that so you don't get germs on your patient or whatever. With all the radiation and things that wanna kill us around here, a few germs are the least of the worries of someone who has been shot." MacCready said with his voice still amusingly high due to his plugged nostrils.

"I have a certain hippocratic oath to uphold Monsieur MacCready. So I carry anything a doctor might need, radiation or not." Curie remarked.

The walk to Goodneighbor was short compared to the groups previous trips but by the time they reached Goodneighbor a few hours later, each of the trios feet felt like they had just spent the day at Nuka World.

When Nate walked through the gate he saw Hancock standing by K-L-E-Os shop with Fahrenheit waiting quietly in the dark alley with a lit cigarette between her fingers. Hancock turned around at the sound of the creaking hinges and smiled at his visitors. Nate smiled back and walked further into the town, he was abruptly stopped by some neighborhood watch running into view, they surrounded the gate and pointed their weapons towards the group. Hancock rushed past the watch and positioned himself between the confused Nate and the threatening guards.

"Woah woah boys! I know you're all on edge right now but theres no need for such harsh treatment!" Hancock looked around the group of neighborhood watch who were beginning to relax and lower their guns. "Alright, now that the situations defused... how about a little respect for the General of the Minutemen?" The watchmen dispersed slowly with their heads hanging low. Hancock waited until the guards had all left the area before turning to Nate. "Sorry about that. We heard about what happened in Diamond City and we've raised our security a bit." Hancock motioned towards a stationed guard who was glaring at the group, especially towards MacCready. "Lets head somewhere more concealed. Follow me into my office." Hancock lead the group into the Old State House, Fahrenheit threw her cigarette on the ground and stomped it out before following the mayor upstairs.

"Its good to see you again Nate, you too MacCready. The Third Rail ain't the same without you lounging around twenty four seven looking for work." Hancock greeted as they entered his office.

"It started wearing out its appeal." MacCready said as he took a seat on the couch. "Magnolia's a hell of a singer but jazz starts to get old after a while."

"I get it. So Nate," Hancock said as he sat across from MacCready. "It seems the Brotherhood threw quite the party in Diamond City. And despite not being invited, you decided to stroll inside and kick their tight asses." Hancock said as he reached for some jet.

"Basically. The city is in shambles now, most of the people are dead and no building was left standing." Nate said remorsefully.

"Jesus," Hancock shook his head. He set the jet back down and rubbed his forehead. "I never liked those city assholes, but they didn't deserve to get massacred like that. The Brotherhood and that shitstain Maxson need to answer for what they've done. They're killing innocents and picking apart every part of the Commonwealth for resources. Thats why I called you here, I heard some of my boys tell me about a lot of Brotherhood activity near the Boston Commons." Hancock got up and poured a drink for himself, Nate, Curie and Mac. "At first I thought it was nothing to give too much attention too, until the watch get into a firefight with some Brotherhood troops. They got 'em pretty bad, but my boys were able to capture one of the bastards alive." He took a sip from the glass before continuing. "He had a real pair of loose lips and told me that the Brotherhood discovered that the rich fops at the Boylston Club were investing in some weird gadgets to protect themselves incase something like this happened." Hancock said.

"But if they were prepping for the apocalypse why'd we find the remains of a group suicide in their clubhouse?" MacCready said.

Hancock finished his drink as MacCready asked his question. "That part i haven't figured out. But theres a good chance somewhere in that club in something the Brotherhood really wants. Which is why we are going to take it from them." Hancock said with a devilish smile.

"I assume you have a plan to do that?" Curie asked.

""Of course Ms. Curie, the Brotherhood are still hanging out around there. So we can still steal whatever they need right from under them." Hancock said. "We can swoop in, take out any Brotherhood we see, then spend however long it takes to find these gizmos." Hancock said confidently.

"Thats not really much of a plan Hancock." Nate remarked as he swirled the whiskey around in the glass.

"You got something better floating around in your noggin?" Hancock smirked.

Nate sat in silence for a while. "I got nothing, we'll do your thing." Nate said as he got up. "Should we head over there now?"

"Sure. Fahrenheit?" Hancock yelled. The bodyguard immediately walked inside.

"Yes Hancock?" She asked with her usual silent and creepy voice.

"Get our best guys and meet us at the gate, we're heading for the Commons." Hancock said. Fahrenheit left as Hancock grabbed his shotgun from the corner. He loaded some shells and stepped towards the door. "You coming?" He asked. The others grabbed their gear and joined Hancock as he walked outside. They met Fahrenheit outside, with her were four neighborhood watch carrying submachine guns to double barreled shotguns. Fahrenheit lifted her minigun as she saw Hancock approach.

"Are we leaving yet?" she asked. Nate took notice of her voice. It was always emotionless, but she was different now. It was almost robotic. _Somethings wrong here_ Nate thought.

"Yeah... Lets go." Nate said cautiously. The group walked out of the gate and into the war zone that was Boston.


	16. The Clubhouse

The group slowly approached the Boston Commons. Hancock sent his men to wait by the gazebo while he, Fahrenheit, Curie, Mac and Nate got a better look of the Brotherhood.

They crawled on their stomachs through the dead and itchy grass to avoid being seen by any Brotherhood nearby. Nate was wearing his usual thick coat, but the grass was still able to poke and scratch his chest and legs as he snaked through the thick and unmoved grass.

Fahrenheit suddenly signaled them to stop. They paused their crawling as she raised her hand to shield her eyes from the midday sun. She scanned the street ahead. "I see about five unarmored initiates patrolling the area." She reported. Nate still heard that strange monotone sound in her voice.

"Two more are standing by the door in power armor." MacCready said. "Gatling lasers and all that fun stuff."

"Alright," Nate said. "Anybody have an idea about how we can take them out and get inside?" He asked as he scratched his chest.

"I say me and the watchmen stay here while two teams of two while sneak to opposite sides of the guards." Fahrenheit proposed. "Once you guys hear the shooting, you'll come out from hiding guns blazing."

Hancock waved his hand in the air in a dismissive and nervous tone. He opened his mouth to speak and the words matched the anxiety his motions showed. "We can't do that! You'll be directly in the line of fire and so will our boys. I can't risk you." Hancock paused for a moment. "You... all."

She put her hand on Hancocks and looked into his black eyes. "It's okay Hancock. It's gonna take more than some Brotherhood to take me down." She started to crawl back to the gazebo before turning back. "I'll leave you guys to figure out the groups. Once I see you gone from this spot, I'll know to start shootin'." She finished and turned back to regroup with the watchmen.

The group looked at each other. MacCready leaned past Curie "Hey Nate, should we go together?" He asked.

"No way." Hancock said. "I'm going with Nate. No offense but I feel a lot safer behind a super soldier from the past. He's like goddamn Captain America."

The pair continued to argue silently before Nate shushed them. "I'm heading out with Curie to the east side of the block. You two will take the west. Now move." Nate said in his commanding tone. The group slowly separated into their assigned pairs and headed to their own hiding spot.

Nate and Curie ducked down into the entrance to Hubric Comics. Nate looked through the small stone columns to keep an eye on the Brotherhood while Curie sat on the steps.

"Nate." She called.

"Yes." He barely turned his head to address her, he kept his eyes on the Brotherhood.

"Why didn't you go with Monsiouer MacCready or Mayor Hancock? I'm sure they would've been much better backup then I." She asked.

He turned away from the guards and looked at her. He took one of her hands in his. She felt sparks shoot yo her arm ash he felt his touch. Even after all the time she's known him, he still manages to make her feel electric.

"I can't let you go into battle with MacCready or Hancock covering your back." He said. "I mean, they're both great people and great shots but..." he paused and looked down at the cement. "I want to be their to protect you. If something ever happened to you when I wasn't there." His voice started to break, Curie didn't know whether to feel flattered or heartbreak at the fact she made him feel like this.

"I wouldn't be able to go on. Everything else is just total shit right now. You're one of the only good things I got." He squeezed her hand tight. "So please, let me be overprotective."

She opened her mouth to respond but was stopped by the sound of minigun fire coming from the Commons.

"That's our cue." Nate said as he picked up his gun and charged towards the startled Brotherhood troops. Curie soon regained her senses and joined the ambush.

The patrols were taken care of rather easily. The groups surprise attack had left them little time to know what was happening before they fell to the ground. The door guards were a bit more of a challenge though. Their extra armor gave them more time to recuperate. Unfortunately they were able to take down one of the neighborhood watch before both were gunned down.

Hancock found the body of the watchmen and leaned down. Nate walked behind him, "Did you know him?" He asked.

Hancock shrugged. "Not exactly. All I knew was his name was Walter. He was rather talkative whenever he was on guard duty in the State House, heard he had just gotten engaged to some fair thing up in Bunker Hill." Hancock said. He rubbed his eyes. "Shit... I never liked seeing my boys go down."

He sat beside the mans corpse for a few more moments before he grabbed his shotgun, reloaded and said a near silent "Let's go." Nate didn't argue as the group opened the door to the clubhouse.

The walked inside the bar area and were greeted with the familiar skeletons of the deceased club members. Fahrenheit stepped over them as she started scanning the area. Hancock suddenly got wide eyed as he ran beside her. "Fay..." he said. "You've been shot."

She looked at her leg, sure enough blood leaked from a hole in her upper calf and stained her black jeans. "I'll be fine." She grunted.

"Fa-" Hancock tried to protest.

"I said I'm fine!" She yelled. She lumped away from him, he stared at her with a hurt expression. Nate ignored their drama as he began to search the room with Curie and MacCready.

An hour later all they had found was a terminal and some foul smelling wine. "What the hell?! We've been searching for over an hour!" MacCready yelled in frustration. "I thought you said whatever these fu-... morons wanted was here!" MacCready yelled.

"I got my info from someone in the Brotherhood. And there were guards at the door so it couldn't be fake." Hancock defended.

"Then why haven't we seen one Brotherhood soldier in here? Huh?" MacCready asked. In an unbelievably well timed coincidence, a panel in the wall opened slowly. There stood two scribes who were chatting with each other. They looked at the the group with startled expressions before they were both domed in the skull by Nate.

"Well woulda look at that..." One of the watchmen said as he looked inside the metal tunnel. Nate raised his weapon and slowly started down the corridor with the others trailing behind him.

 **Sorry I haven't uploaded in so long. I got hit with a bad case of writers block and I've been distracted since school started. I'll try to get back into my regular upload schedule.**

 **-Skaterbob2**


	17. Artifacts

Nate carefully walked down the hallway with his revolver raised. The rest of the group trailed a short way behind him. The dimly lit corridor didn't allow Curie much sight range, all she could see was the silhouette of Nate or MacCready, occasionally briefly lit up by the fire of a weapon when an unfortunate scribe came across the group of Minutemen and watchmen.

Eventually the hallway ended with a blue painted metal door. Hancock tried opening it as is, only to find it was locked. "Stand back he said." He raised his shotgun and blasted off the lock.

"I could've just picked the lock." Nate said as he glared at the ghoul.

"This way was quicker." Hancock shrugged.

"And louder," Nate commented. "There goes the element of surprise."

Hancock shrugged again. Nate burst through the door and gunned down three panicked scribes with incredible speed.

MacCready stepped inside and looked around. He was awestruck at the inventory held inside the bunker. Ammo, weapons, power armor, there was even a goddamn tank in the corner.

All the others besides Nate shared MacCready's reaction. This stockpile wasn't a thing compared to what Nate had seen during his time in the army. "Look around. This stuff is stuff the Brotherhood could've found in some military outpost, not a country club." The group fanned out, searching every inch of the underground warehouse. Nate stepped up a flight of stairs towards an overhead room. MacCready and Hancock followed him up. The overhead room seemed to be a control booth.

"What do all these buttons do?" Hancock asked himself as he pushed a dry skeleton off one of the consoles.

"Maybe open that giant ass door right there." MacCready pointed. Nate and Hancock looked up and saw a large metal door with chipped red paint.

"Shit, you're probably right." Hancock said. Nate looked over the console and eyed a large red button. He carefully pushed it and the door squeaked loudly as it was opened.

The group searching downstairs gaped at the sight of whatever was through he door. "Can you see anything?" Nate asked as he tried to get a good look. Unfortunately the angle of the room prevented them from getting a good look.

"Nope." Hancock answered. "Guess we'll just have to head downstairs." He started heading outside and down the staircase. MacCready and Nate followed him as he rejoined the group.

Nate walked into the makeshift garage and took in the sight before him. There stood countless huge armored trucks, all were way more advanced than even the trucks he drove when he was in Anchorage. There was enough room one vehicle to seat at least twenty troops. And built into the roof was a mounted Gatling Laser and Fat Man.

"Holy shit. I'm in Heaven." MacCready gasped. The group eached crowded around one truck in particular and began petting it and admiring it. One of the Watchmen even planted a kiss on the hood.

"This is great you guys. But how are we getting all these out of here?" Nate asked.

Fahrenheit pointed out a button and several cables near the walls of the garage. "It's an elevator. Just push this button and you'll bring these bad boys to the surface." She said. Nate nodded in understanding, he watched the crew continue their obsessive and almost loving behavior towards the automobiles.

Curie sauntered up to him. She placed her hand in his and their fingers laced together. Nate looked down at her and smiled, he leaned down and kissed the top of her head. He suddenly tuned out of the celebration and turned his attention towards the tunnel they entered from. Heavy footsteps echoed into the bunker, it seemed he was the only one who heard it.

Time seemed to slow down as he saw the Brotherhood paladin charge inside. He saw the paladin aim for the closest and his first seen target. Curie. In an instant he pulled her behind the truck and the paladins laser gun fired. Nate felt his stomach burn as the beam made contact with his flesh. He collapsed against the wall and slid behind the car. Curie shrieked and her eyes instantly fill with tears. She sobbed as the bunker became a blur of lasers, blood, and bullets.

Nate looked around, all he could hear was a sharp ringing noise. He looked towards Fahrenheit, who was standing dead center in the bunker with her minigun. She took down a few initiates and even the paladin that shot him before she fell to the ground in a flurry of red lights. Hancock screamed out to her, though Nate couldn't hear it at all. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was a bright flash in the bunker. Several figures he didn't recognize appeared from almost nowhere and opened fire on the Brotherhood and Minutemen. Then the elevator began to lift and he felt himself drifting off into unconsciousness.

 **Elsewhere, one hour later**

A short woman with just as short hair stood alone in a dark room, the only light coming from her terminal as she clicked away. The door opened, allowing a little more light to invade the crowded space. A neatly dressed man walked inside holding a clipboard.

"Ever heard off knocking?" The woman asked bitterly.

"Apologies ma'am. I was unfortunately unable to heal agent F8 or 'Fahrenheit' as she was referred to in the field." He said somberly.

"It doesn't matter. Her usefulness to us was at an end anyway. Nate never trusted her. She'd never get us inside the Minutemen Headquarters, or atleast not hear anything useful." She said in a harsh, business tone.

"What shall we do now?" The man asked. "The Minutemen have retrieved the artifact and the tensions between them and the Brotherhood are going to peak soon."

"We proceed with the plan. Send in the defectors, they'll be able to pave the way towards phase three. Soon the entire Commonwealth will be nothing but a blood coated desert, and all those people will remember my name as they die. They'll be sorry they betrayed me." The woman angrily said as she squeezed her fist. The man, worried for his safety, left her quarters and left her to continue her typing.


	18. Gone Rogue

Curie sat beside the bed where and unconsciousness Nate laid. She couldn't help but feel a bit of déjà vu, about when she waited for his recovery at Starlight after Quincy. _He's going to make it_ Curie thought. _He has too, he survived Quincy, he survived the war with the Institute, he can survive anything._

Ronnie knocked on the door, Curie stood up and let her inside. "Hello Curie." She said.

"Hello Ms. Shaw." Curie replied.

"I wanted to talk to you." _Obviously_ Curie thought. It's not like she could've talked to Nate. "The team of doctors that were working on the General have confirmed that he's in a coma." Curie felt like she was going to be sick. What if he didn't recover. She couldn't lose him now, she just couldn't.

"The good news is that he's going to be fine... eventually. The bad news is he'll be out for atleast two weeks, he lost a lot of blood while we were getting him here." Ronnie said. "Anyway, as I'm sure you know, Nate and I like to take precautions. He said that if he was ever unfit for his duty, that you would take over as General until he got better." Curie was shocked. Nate trusted her that much? These plans had to have been made before their relationship begun, he really thought she could lead the Minutemen?

"I... I don't know what to say." Curie stammered. "I think I need to sit down." She sat in one of the wooden chairs surrounding the meeting table.

"We also discussed I take over if you feel like you couldn't do the job." Ronnie proposed.

Curie thought about it for a bit. In any other situation she could probably handle running the Minutemen. But they were in the middle of a war with one of the most dangerous enemies they've seen. She couldn't handle that, she had nowhere near the amount of mental strength that Nate had.

"Yes... I think that would be best." Curie said.

"Alright. Well... anyway, I also-" she abruptly cut her sentence short when a short recruit bust through the door. "Private!" She yelled. The soldier stiffened with fear.

"Commander Shaw! I'm sorry for the-" he tried to explain himself before Ronnie waved him off.

"It's fine Private, just learn to knock for god's sake. Now what's so important?" She asked.

"A group of Brotherhood were spotted in the nearby area. The claimed they meant no harm and wanted to talk to whoever was in charge. We have them detained at the diner." He reported.

Curie and Ronnie immediately grabbed their weapons and headed to the gate, they signaled to the guard on the top of the wall to open up, he obeyed and they began the short walk to the diner.

As Curie approached, she slowly recognized the synth Nick Valentine, who was arguing with an older soldier.

"I can get information from them. I'm a detective, finding out info is my job." He said in between inhaling puffs from a cigarette.

"Like I've said a million times mister Valentine, I can't let you or anyone inside until I get clearance from an authority figure." The Minuteman said tiredly.

"He can go in with us." Ronnie said. The Minuteman the synth looked at the two, apparently they didn't see them coming during their verbal exchange.

"Yes Ma'am." The Minuteman responded. He moved two guards away from the large hole in the structure and allowed the group inside. Curie and Nick exhanged a nod, but no other greeting. Neither felt like small talk, Nick was mourning the people of Diamond City and Curie was worried sick about Nate.

Ronnie lead the two others inside and looked upon the group of rogue Brotherhood. There were five of them. Two scribes, an initiate, and two who liked like they were pretty high in rank, paladins maybe.

"You want to explain to me why we shouldn't just throw y'all in the ocean and let the radiation take care of ya?" Ronnie asked with her arms crossed.

"We're not with the Brotherhood anymore." One of the scribes spoke up. "We abandoned our patrols to come here and help the Minutemen."

"And why the hell should we believe you?" Valentine asked skeptically. Curie noticed the detectives attitude change. He used to have a calm and friendly tone when talking to people. Now he seemed to be angry and hateful towards anyone who had even talked to a Brotherhood soldier.

"We weren't sure about leaving the Brotherhood, but once we found out Danse was alive we wanted to get into contact." The initiate said. "We talked and agreed to come to the Castle."

"Danse invited you here?" Ronnie yelled. "Without talking to me?"

"Yes I did, and my apologies." Danse said as he walked inside the half-collapsed diner. "I knew you wouldn't have approved if I told you about this."

"Goldurnit Danse! You have to tell me or the General about these things." She pointed at the Brotherhood defectors. "I don't see any reason why we shouldn't kill all these Brotherhood trash!"

"Agreed." Said Valentine.

"Wait." Said the initiate in a calm and monotone voice. "We can help you. I know about a major operation Maxson is planning that will leave the Prydwen completely undefended. While his troops are away, I could get you some Brotherhood vertibirds and you'll be able to fly into the ship. Then all you have to do is kill Maxson while his guard is down, then plant one of them bombs on the ship."

"Like the one used to destroy the Institute." Curie inquired.

He paused for a moment, giving her a look that almost seemed like a glare. "Yes..." He finally answered. "Like the bomb used to destroy the Institute."

"Maybe a smaller blast radius though." Danse said. "We have settlements nearby the Boston Airport and we don't want them being caught in the crossfire."

Ronnie pondered for a moment, looking down at the debris-scattered floor. A moment passed and then she looked up. "Alright, I'll let you stay under a twenty four watch until we deal with the Brotherhood. Then we're tossing you in the middle of the Commonwealth."

"Understood." They all spoke in almost perfect unison. Ronnie showed them out and lead them to the Castle. They were sent away to their newly assigned rooms while being escorted by several armed Minutemen.

Curie walked back into her and Nate's room. She stopped and looked at Nate as he laid motionlessly on the bed. His upper body was uncovered, the only thing giving him a bit off modesty was a bandage wrapped around his abdominals. He still wore the dusty pants he had on during the Boylston Club mission. Curie felt like his injurie was her fault. She was so preoccupied with the cars that she ignored the signals of Brotherhood nearby, if she had been a bit more attentive then maybe he wouldn't be lying there.

Her self guilt-trip was interrupted by the sound of metal banging and machinery going coming from the tunnels. She stepped down and saw Sturges, hunched over a workbench. She walked to his side and saw that he was working on the strange weapon she saw Nate using, the night the Brotherhood attacked the Castle.

He looked up "Hello miss Curie. Sorry if I'm making a ruckus down here." He apologized.

"Hello Sturges, you weren't bothering me at all, I just wanted to know what was going on. I didn't think anyone used this space for anything other than storage."

"Well, I like to work down here, No annoying farm boys who think that since they can mod a pipe rifle they can help me build things like this," he motioned towards the weapon. "I'll try to keep the noise down."

"No Sturges, work as much as you please, it doesn't bother me at all." She smiled and began walking back to her room. As she reached the top stair, she was suddenly thrown across the room. A loud _BOOM_ made her ears ring. She ran back to the tunnels to find the entire place engulfed in fire. "Sturges?!" She yelled. "Sturges are you okay?!" She hopelessly asked, she knew there was no way he survived, but she didn't know if she could lose anyone else. With tears in her eyes, she ran off to get help.


	19. Visions of The Truth

Nate opened his eyes to find himself in an unfamiliar scenario. He felt like he was being dropped from a building, yet he remained still. The area around him was dark, he could see nothing that was farther away than two feet. _Where the hell am I?_ Nate wondered. The last thing he remembered was being in the elevator in the Boylston Club and getting shot. He had no recollection of how he ended up here.

A strained and high pitched voice suddenly spoke from the darkness. "Hello." Was the only thing it said. Nate felt his heart beating a million miles an hour, where the hell was he?

"Where are you? Show yourself!" Nate demanded.

"You seem to be in no position to be giving orders General." The voice suddenly changed, its tone and pitch suddenly matched... Preston? Shit, if this was Garvey then the Brotherhood must have kidnapped Nate at the club. Nate could hear the muffled talking of others nearby, who he assumed were other Brotherhood troops. Their sentences were nonsense to him though, they spoke in a language he didn't recognize, maybe Latin?

"Tu autem post illud."

"Quia nec superesse."

"Undique parricidae."

"So... are you going to kill me now?" Nate asked bitterly.

"Now why would I do that?" The disembodied voice suddenly changed back to the original sound Nate first heard.

"Preston, I don't know what trick you're pulling, but whatever it is just stop and kill me. Please." Nate requested. He had no desire to play the Brotherhoods or the third group Danse mentioned game anymore. If he couldn't fight them anymore, he might as well be dead.

The scene around him began to morph into something else. The darkness dissipated, and he was show Starlight. It looked like the the city he knew only for a few moments before it was engulfed by fire. Building burned, causing the night sky to have a hellish orange color. He looked around and saw hundred of Minutemen and Brotherhood engaged in a vicious battle. He looked up to the top of the movie screen, and felt his heart drop. Curie was covered head to toe in her own blood, her green combat armor was torn apart and ruined. She held a Chinese officer sword in one hand and held the bleeding gash in her side with the other. Another figure stepped onto the platform, the two locked eyes for a moment before the figure charged, Curie fought valiantly for a few moments before she was promptly stabbed in the neck, Nate tried to scream but his mouth felt like it was sewed shut. She fell off the platform and hit the ground with a sickening crunch.

Nate felt his eyes tear up but no liquid left, his eyes burned with the hot tears as the work around him morphed again. This time he was in Sanctuary, the scenario was similar to Starlight. Fire, Minutemen, Brotherhood, blood, death. He saw MacCready, Danse, Piper, and Nick run inside a house. Brotherhood troops were raining laser fire upon them as they scrambled to take cover. Vertibirds flew overhead, one moved to the side of the house Nate's friends sheltered inside. The side door opened, and a paladin pointed a fatman in their direction, and fired. The house exploded in a fiery blaze, there was no possibility of any of the four surviving.

The darkness returned as Nate crawled on all fours, he felt vomit creeping up his throat. He unloaded his stomach and heard the voice call to him again, "The visions you see are inevitable if the Minutemen follow the path they're on."

Nate panted and groaned. "Please... release me from this torment." He begged.

"I must warn you first, the key to the Brotherhoods demise does not lay with those who are unfaithful to their superiors, it lays elsewhere in the Commonwealth." The voice spoke. "You'll find the next and final step towards defeating your enemy in the West. Five miles south of the Abernathy Farm, you'll find a hidden bunker, the true mastermind of the struggle you face resides there. Defeat them and you will be shown the solution to everything. Now you must leave my void of darkness, and lead you and your army to glory." Nate felt the darkness close in.

"No... please tell me more! I need to know more!" His pleas fell on deaf ears, he felt his body drift in subconciousness, before he awoke inside his quarters.

 **At the Prydwen...**

Elder Maxson opened a beer inside his room, he gulped it all down in a few swigs before setting the empty bottle on the table. He heard a knock at his door and grunted a "Come in."

Haylen stepped inside. "Sir, I have confirmed names on four of the defectors." Maxson waited for her to continue. "Scribe Gerhue, Scribe Foster, Paladin Tyre, and Knight-Captain Manuel."

"And the fifth traitor we saw?" Maxson asked impatiently.

"Well sir, I encountered something strange. The records and description of the initiate don't match any of our enlisted soldiers. I think he was a Minutemen spy." Haylen reported.

"Impossible. I know every soldier under my command, we had to have some record of him." Maxson said.

"Negative, it's as if he doesn't exist. Like he's a phantom or boogeyman taunting us." Haylen said. Maxson sighed in frustration.

He dismissed her and she turned to leave. "Before you leave," Maxson called. Haylen turned back around to see the Elder with a sickening smile. "Congratulations in the promotion, Proctor Haylen. I'm sure you'll do much better than Quinlan."


	20. A Friends Reunion

When the flames were extinguished, there wasn't much left of the old tunnel system. There was even less of Sturges and the weapon left. Curie couldn't bare to watch as they dragged his charred remains from the rubble and buried them outside. Ronnie had already assigned someone to begin working on Sturges memorial plaque. Curie was unable to function at all during the next few days. She refused to eat, she couldn't sleep, and she couldn't talk or anyone. MacCready, Valentine, and Danse had all tried hard to start a conversation and get her to talk and come out of her almost braindead state. But every time they tried it was to no avail.

It wasn't until Nate woke from his coma that Curie showed any signs of proper mental health. When she first heard the news of his awakening, she had her first bite of food for almost four days. The next day she got up from bed and walked around the Castle. When Nate came to visit her in her room however, she was almost like the same old Curie. MacCready chuckled to himself as she embraced the General in her arms for the first time in two weeks. "I missed you." She whispered, though it was muffled against his shoulder Nate heard.

"I missed you too." He said. Although, from Curies perspective that remark must've seemed stupid. She had no idea he had a conscious mind for a brief time while in his comatose state. Their reunion was unfortunately a short one however, Nate was called into a meeting by Ronnie and Curie still had to recover from her week long sleep and food starvation period.

Ronnie opened the door to the new meeting room. She decided that using the General's quarters for official meetings was a bit unorthodox. The new meeting room was inside the rebuilt section of the Castle that was originally collapsed when the Minutemen toke it. Nate always wondered if the wall collapsed when the bombs dropped or during the two hundred year long chaos that followed.

Nate sat down at the table with Ronnie next to him. Shorly after the other prominent Minutemen, and one of the Brotherhood guests, arrived. "General," Ronnie said. "I would like to formally introduce former Initiate Jules." Ronnie spoke respectfully but with a note of bitterness. Nate guessed she still harbored resentment for the rogue Brotherhood members, despite their betrayal to Maxson.

"It is good to meet you." Nate said as he shook Jules cold hand. "I have to say I'm surprised, though Danse said that some Brotherhood members weren't completely loyal I doubted that some would be willing to defect, especially after what happened in Diamond City."

"I couldn't sit by and let that Madman order me to hurt people." His words were emotional, yet his tone showed no humanity. Like Fahrenheit... Nate eyed Jules dangerously as he talked. "As I've told your second-in-command," Jules motioned towards Ronnie. "I know about future Brotherhood activities that could leave the Prydwen vulnerable to attacks."

"Tell me more." Nate ordered, still looking at Jules suspiciously.

"The Brotherhood are planning to destroy the entire Commonwealth with one move. They're rigging Liberty Prime up with enough firepower to repeat the Great War and preparing to send him into the heart of Downtown Boston. He'll have a heavy escort, leaving the Prydwen mostly undefended."

"But what good will storming the Prydwen do if the Commonwealth would still get blown to sh-... bits?" MacCready asked.

"Prime can only be detonated from a command issued through Elder Maxson's personal terminal." Jules said. "All you have to do is ensure he never gives the all clear and the Commonwealth is saved."

The Minutemen leaders whispered about the proposed plan for a moment before Ronnie called for a vote. "Who votes that we proceed with the plan proposed by Jules. All in favor say I." Almost everyone at the table said "I."

"Alright then. I want a twenty-four seven watch keeping an eye on Liberty Prime and telling us the second he starts moving. And have Vertibirds on standby waiting to board when the Brotherhood plan is set in motion." Ronnie continued her barking for a moment before the meeting was adjourned and the group was dismissed. Nate practically ran to his quarters and shut the door behind him. He paced around trying to think of what to do. All his troops were waiting to go with Jules plan. But he knew he had to get to that bunker mentioned in his dream. To even believe it existed was a big gamble, but he had to ensure he wasn't missing anything.

He immediately began packing his gear. He took some food from the mess hall and grabbed some extra ammo from the armory. He was dressed in his gear and ready to head out for his trip before he realized, what if the bunker wasn't empty? Sure he was the General of the Minutemen but he couldn't take on a operational enemy facility by himself. Escpecially since he had no idea what was waiting inside the aforementioned bunker.

But who could he trust? Hancock trusted Fahrenheit more than anyone, and she turned out to be a spy for these hidden enemies. Ronnie and MacCready both proved their loyalty but were too busy with Minutemen duties. Valentine and Danse were often too drunk from drowning their sorrows to perform properly in combat. And Curie was bedridden from her unrecreational fasting while he was in his coma. He then realized the two friends he had who he knew he could trust right now. Who always had his back since he first emerged from the vault. He went to a storage shed out behind the Castle walls and flipped on the lights. A deactivated Mr. Handy sat quietly inside, but not just any Mr. Handy. Nate reactivated his favorite British robot and watched him rise slowly.

"Mr. Nate! Wonderful to see you again!" Codsworth said. Though Codsworth had clearly seen better days, he was still jolly and cheerful. One of his eyes was cracked and he was missing the arm that once held his saw blade.

"It's good to see you too Codsworth." Nate said, the sight of his robot friend up and running nearly pushed him to tears. "I wish we had time to talk but we have to go."

"Ooh! An important mission? Well you certainly picked the right man! Or rather, robot." Codsworth chuckled. "So, shall we depart?"

"Almost." Nate held up his hand. He whistled into the air and almost immediately heard his canine companion come running. Dogmeat turned the corner and ran into Nates arms, excited to see his master after spending so long in Valentine's care.

"Now we're ready to go." Nate said. With that, the group marched from the Castle and into the Commonwealth, ready to face the threat ahead of them.

 **Aboard the Prydwen...**

Maxson sat across from the two former Minutemen. Preston and Haylen stood beside him, Preston eyed the two Minutemen with a passionate hatred, while Haylen just tried to keep her eyes down.

"So," Maxson began to question. "You two abandoned the Castle to help the Brotherhood?"

"That's correct Elder," one of the Minutemen spoke up. "We felt your ideas about the Commonwealth were nothing but the truth and the Minutemen is nothing more than a waste of time."

"Well I wou-" Elder Maxson suddenly paused and froze. Preston took his eyes off the Minutemen for the first time to address the Elders state. Then without skipping a beat, Maxson grabbed his gun and opened fire on the Minutemen defectors, killing them both within seconds. Maxson then collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

"Get Knight-Captain Cade now!" Haylen yelled as she kneeled down next to the Brotherhood leader. Preston ran down the hall, knocking over a few scribes to reach Cade's office.

 **Elsewhere in the western parts of the Commonwealth...**

"What the fuck was that?!" The woman yelled. "I thought we had control. You assured me all the resources we found here were one hundred percent foolproof!" She pointed a bony finger at a nearby man dressed in a dirty lab coat.

"Ma'am, I- I- I can assure you that this was just an error in the programming! It will never happen again!" The man stammered an excuse.

"It doesn't matter if it happens again! It may have ruined the entire plan I've been putting together for two years!" She yelled. "See to it that this fluke has not compromised us in any way!" She ordered.

"I can assure you ma'am, we've all taken precautions so that the plan goes accordingly and we stay hidden while it does." The man said. In a wild stroke of bad-timing, a second man approached the doorway to the room the two were arguing in.

"Ma'am, we have a situation. The General of the Minutemen was spotted on our surveillance systems a half-mile away." He said.

"Damnit!" She yelled. "Are there any more with him?" She asked.

"The only other members of his group we saw was a Mr. Handy unit and a German Shepherd." The second man reported. "Shall I send a squad to attack? Or prepare our defenses?"

"No." She said. The second man was taken aback for a moment. "Let him inside, then we take him by surprise." The second man nodded and hurried off. "This is our chance, once he falls, the Minutemen won't be far behind. Then all that's left is the Brotherhood."

 **I've updated Chapter 5 with some important details that will come into play in a few chapters. So if you want the upcoming chapters to make sense then please reread Chapter 5**


	21. Spare The Rod

Nate trudged through the grasslands of the western Commonwealth as the rain dampened his clothes and hair, he held a hand over his head to protect himself but it did little to help. He felt the mix of the dead leaves and grass crunching and the damp mud beneath his feet every time he took a step. Dogmeat seemed rather unaffected by the weather, still trotting happily with his tongue out. And Codsworth hadn't voiced any concerns, though he did seem to start moving faster when the rain began, probably out of fear that some lucky drop would fry his circuits, that were rather fragile after two-hundred years.

He wondered what was happening at the Castle. He had been gone all day, someone must have noticed his absence by now. He knew however that his departure wouldn't affect the 'battle' Jules told them about and that Ronnie was preparing for, as he knew it was complete bullshit. He didn't know much about Jules, but he couldn't be trusted. None of these new Brotherhood troops could. If he was a bit more confident in his theory he'd have them all exiled from the Castle... or executed.

No. He wouldn't kill them, he wasn't an animal like Maxson or Preston.

Preston.

His name still made Nate feel a strange mix of somber ness and fury. On one hand he felt as if his old friend was dead. Disappeared like the world he used to live in. But on the other, he had been stabbed in the back by one of the people he trusted most. Nate tried hard to push the thoughts of Preston out of his head. He needed to focus, he might be charging intothe headquarters of a big and dangerous group.

Well, he didn't know how big and dangerous they were. But they did have spies, lots of them. In high places, like the Brotherhood the Minutemen, even Mayor Hancock's personal bodyguard. Fahrenheit's betrayal hit Hancock hard. He remembered that MacCready said Hancock disappeared after they got off the elevator. While he and Ronnie were helping to get the trucks to a safe location, Hancock just walked into the city ruins and never looked back. No one in Goodneighbor saw him for a week. Before some Neighborhood Watch guy found his body near the Boston Bugle building. He was surrounded by empty alchohol bottles and piles of Jet and clutching a pipe revolver. He several bulletholes all over his body, one of them on his right temple. They couldn't tell if he had died by overdose or suicide. Nate felt the former would be the way Hancock would wanna go, stoned out of his gourd.

MacCready said there was no word from Goodneighbor after that. Without strong leader like Hancock they fell to Super Mutant and Raider attacks pretty quick. Nate or MacCready hadn't heard if the city was still standing or there were no survivors left, just that the town was an ever bigger shitshow than it was before.

Nate stopped as the shadow from the highway engulfed him and his companions. He pulled out his revolver and looked around. He had to be close at this point, he could see Abernanthy Farm in the distance, past Walden Pond. It was small, like a little dot, but he could see it. "Codsworth look around for any signs of a bunker, we should be close to these guys." Nate said.

"Rightey-O Sir!" Codsworth chirped as he began to scan the area around him. Though some of Nate's friends found Codsworth annoying, Nate found his programmed innocence charming. He was like a little token of Nate's previous life that he could cherish forever. That's why he had deactivated Codsworth, after a close call with some Gunners a few months back Nate panicked and the two agreed that Codsworth would be shut down until he was desperately needed.

Nate looked down at his canine friend. "Dogmeat." He called. Dogmeat looked up with eager eyes, waiting to do the bidding of his master. "Sniff around boy, see if you can find any trace of people." Dogmeat barked in what Nate could only assume was understanding and ran off.

Nate stood by himself for a few moments surveying the area. He couldn't think of anything else to do but scan the grass around him, looking for any signs of something manmade. He moved slowly through the ankle-tall grass, the only unnatural things he could see was some debris from the highway above him and some two hundred year old Nuka Cola bottles.

"Sir!" Nate turned to Codsworth and saw him hovering by an overturned pickup truck. Nate walked over, "What's the matter Codsworth? Find anything?" He asked.

"I believe so. I picked up a heat signature from this area, I was confused for a moment before I realized it was coming from below ground." Codsworth said. "And it was directly underneath this automobile. It has long since passed but anyway, I think the gateway to our enemy lies beneath this car."

"Well done Codsworth." Nate complimented. He called Dogmeat over as the Mr. Handy continued to talk.

"Well not really. Unless you can lift five-thousand plus pounds than we're not getting inside. We'll have to find another way to move the truck." Codsworth moved to the vehicles side, he looked down as far as he could beneath the hood. "Aha!" He exclaimed. "I may have found a solution. The nuclear engine is still intact, a wonderous feat after two hundred years if I must say. Once we get so a safe distance, if you can shoot the engine, the car will explode. Either moving the truck away from the enemy location, or creating an alternate route by exploding a hole in the pavement."

"Good thinking Codsworth." Nate said. "Alright, lets move back." Nate pushed the group about forty feet from the car. He holstered his revolver and took out his hunting rifle. He rested the stock by his shoulder, aimed down the sights, and fired. The bullet struck the engine, causing the car to briefly erupt in flames before violently exploding.

The truck soared through the sky before gravity took control and dragged the wreckage back to Earth. Luckily landing far from its original spot. Nate stayed in his position as he waited for the flames to die down. When they finally did, he stood up and rushed to the site. There was what appeared to be a hole, covered by a makeshift manhole cover. Nate grabbed at its edge to find it surprisingly light. He lifted it up and over, revealing an eight foot tall hole with a metal ladder up the side. Nate grabbed Dogmeat and hoisted the canine over his shoulder before beginning to climb down. He never realized how heavy Dogmeat was, with every step of the ladder Nate wheezed and coughed from the weight on his shoulders. When Nate stepped off the ladder, he released the heavy dog and watched Codsworth calmly and smugly hover to the bottom.

Nate paused to catch his breath before reaching for his revolver. He aimed ahead of him as he walked through the tunnel. The short walk was silent, save for the sound of Codsworth's robotic body moving and the swish of Dogmeat's tail. Eventually, the dirt tunnel came to an end, he walked inside a concrete room. He looked around as he walked on the blue and yellow metal walkway. He stopped in awe as he saw a giant vault door marked 109.

"A vault?" Nate whispered to himself. What the hell was a vault doing down here? And why was it hidden away? He thought that the idea was to get the general public to know where it was.

"Well, it seems we have stumbled onto a vault Sir." Codsworth stated. "Lets go inside. I know you're not fond of vaults and all... after all that... unpleasentness." Codsworths awkwardly stuttered. "But I think our enemies are hiding inside."

"You're right Codsworth. Let's go." Nate walked up the platform and approached the familiar console. He plugged his Pip-boy in and pushed the button to open the vault. The vault made that horrible screeching sound Nate hated as the metal dragged itself away from the spot its likely been resting for two centuries. Nate watched the bridge extend and stepped inside the vault. He saw the norm for abandoned vaults, skeletons, overturned furniture, papers everywhere. It looked like it hadn't been touched in years. _The perfect cover_ Nate thought. He carefully wandered deeper into the vault, Codsworth and Dogmeat behind him. Shortly he reached a room he figured it be the overseers office. _Strange_ Nate thought, _It usually isn't this close to the door._ He noticed the strange makeshift barricade by the door, it looked like it failed. He hopped over the desk and sat in the chair, pushing aside the skeleton previously seated. He checked out the terminal to find it was still operational. He clicked it on and watched the computer screen slowly light up.

 _Welcome Overseer Monroe,_ Flashed at the top of the screen. The different files slowly loaded and listed themselves on the screen. Nate clicked on the top option.

 _VAULT FUNCTION:_

 _Vault 109 has been given the task of developing and testing a mind-control device that will be used by the U.S. government to manipulate the Chinese leaders into either stepping down or deliberately losing the war._

Mind control? How was that even possible? Sure, Nate lived in a world of cyro tubes and robots but the idea of taking control of another person seemed impossible. He exited out and clicked on the next file.

 _OVERSEER LOG 10/25/77_

 _Our test subjects have fully settled in. We have made sure or separate the good samaritans from the kids, homeless, and disabled. Work has already begun on the devices that will hopefully allow us to take control of these peoples brains._

 _Dr. Henrick made a strong point about how he would ensure the charity workers would only engage in violence with the people they'd often work to help, not us. I was reluctant to take the overseer position when I discovered children would be killed, but I was assured it was for the good of our country. If I didn't do this the commies win._

 _OVERSEER LOG 9/16/78_

 _The first prototypes have had promising results so far. We haven't gotten the people to engage in any serious hostility towards the others, but the signs of the device are there. The samaritans glare at the children when they're being loud, make a noticeable effort to separate themselves from the homeless, and don't socialize with the mentally disable nearly as much as they did._

 _Dr. Henrick has assured me that the next design will bring the wanted results._

 _OVERSEER LOG 12/02/81_

 _Well it seems we have achieved our goal! And in record time too. I was sure this would take several more years, but thankfully our extraordinary efforts have allowed and accelerated success! Today we were ecstatic to see the common area in pure chaos. I of course never rejoiced in watching those people be savagely killed, but I took pride in knowing I did something good for my country._

 _OVERSEER LOG 12/03/81_

 _Something is wrong. All the weak subjects are dead, but the samaritans are still in their 'savage' mindstate. We had to seal off the commons when some of our staff went inside and got ripped apart. The little security forces we have are reluctant to deal with the situation, too afraid of facing the... creatures in the vault. But if they don't do something they'll wish they were killed by those things._

 _OVERSEER LOG 12/10/81_

 _Atleast ninety five percent of the vault has fallen. I barricaded myself in my office while the other survivors ran to the exit. Based on the screams I heard earlier, it didn't go well for them. I can hear them, scratching at my door, screaming their horrible gibberish. The devices didn't just make them kill. It made that the only thing they want to do, can do, will do._

 _Dear God, what have I done?_

 _This is surely my last journal entry. Either these things will kill me or I'll starve._

 _Please God... forgive me_

"Holy shit..." Nate felt like puking. This has got to be the most fucked thing he's heard of Vault-Tex doing. Making someone kill children? And homeless and the mentally disabled? This was beyond what they did at one-eleven, this was satanic!

Nate was brought of his daze by the metal door opening, three large men, covered head to toe in white combat armor stormed inside. Dogmeat tried to latch onto the arm of one, but the man was fast and pinned Dogmeat to the ground. He pulled out a syringe and injectors it inside the dogs neck. Dogmeats furious growls became a series of tired whimpers as he slowly lost consciousness. Codsworth attempted to roast them alive with his flamethrower. He actually forced one to the ground with his fire, but he was overwhelmed and had his power shut off. He collapsed in a metal heap on the floor.

Nate grabbed his revolver and successfully shot Codsworths killer in the neck. As the two other advanced, he reached into his back pocket and reached for the distress beacon Sturges gave him. He had pulled it out when one of his attacker's landed a right hook on Nate's jaw. He fell in the floor, the device landing some distance away. He tried to reach for it, but the second man stepped on it, effectively ending Nate's hopes for rescue.

Nate wasn't about to give up. He shot one man in the ankle, and unloaded the rest of his bullets into the other. The attacker collapsed while the second screamed in pain, Nate slowly approached him, and with a swift motion, snapped his neck.

Nate felt a minor victory, before a baton cane crashing down into his cranium. He fell to his knees while the room around him spun. He felt the presence of two more attackers nearby. They picked him up and lifted him onto the seat. A third figure walked in, dressed in normal wasteland clothes, save for a loose fitting X-01 helmet wrapped around her head by a piece of rope.

"Well, well, well." The figures voice obviously belonged to a female, an old female. Nate thought it was familiar, but he couldn't exactly remember.

"Please..." Nate manage to choke out in between harsh breaths. "Have mercy..."

"Mercy?" The lady crouched down and got up close. "Well, what do you think boys?" She asked. One of them handed her a stun baton. She eyed it for a few moments before turning to Nate. "You know what they say... spare the rod,"

And that was all Nate heard before his world turned to black.

 **This chapter might be slightly AU. I couldn't find any Vault 109 but I'm positive there is a vault in Fallout where they experiment with mind-control.**


	22. War Party

Curie paced nervously around Nate's room. It had been two hours since they discovered he was gone, along with him Codsworth and Dogmeat. The radio operator had order all troops in the Commonwealth to make finding the General their number one priority. Curie was collapsing mentally every minute he was gone. She felt like her world was crumbling and changing, she didn't like change. She didn't like any of these feelings.

She remembered her thoughts from what seemed like so long ago. She told herself that she was cynical, but now she thought it was nothing but logical. As a robot she wouldn't have any of this horrible dread and fear inside her every minute, she wouldn't feel the constant mourning and guilt every time she lost a friend like Sturges, Hancock, Preston, and hopefully not Nate.

She could feel the hot tears pouring out of her eyes and running down her cheeks as she stopped her pacing and rested in a fetal position on the bed. She didn't like this. She didn't like anything human. She loved Nate so much, but she would give anything to return to her robotic state.

Ronnie sat alone in the armory. Going over inventory for the tenth time that day. She needed the distraction, her superior and friend might very well be dead, and his his synth girlfriends constant sobs made it very hard to forget that fact. Finally after completing her armory check, she set her clipboard down and set off for the Generals quarters. She opened the door and found the doctor curled up on the bed, crying so ugly that a super mutant would cringe at the sight.

"Curie, you need to pull yourself together." Ronnie questioned herself for the harsh words. But she couldn't think of anything else, she was never the soft sympathetic type. "I understand that Nate's disappearance has been hard on you, especially after he had just came out of his coma... but staying in here won't help you."

Curie didn't move an inch. Her eyes stared straight ahead as Ronnie talked and they never moved once.

"If you don't come out of here then Na-" Ronnie was about to make some stupid ill-minded remark, when thankfully she was interrupted by a recruit bursting through the door. He wheezed and tried desperately to catch his breath before talking.

"We... we have... a lead on the General's whereabouts." He announced Curie immediately jumped out of the bed and swarmed him with questions.

"Where is he? Is he okay? Is he dead? Has he sent a message?" Ronnie had to practically pull the synth girl away from the overwhelmed boy.

"We got a brief distress signal coming from the device made by our late Quartermaster. He appears to be somewhere west of Cambridge." Ronnie and Curie immediately stormed out the door. Curie grabbed everyone of her friends she could find before they all met at the gate.

MacCready, Piper, Danse, Ronnie, Nick, and Curie walked fearlessly out of the Castle. Ronnie felt it was best to keep the party small, no additional troops would be needed. Besides it'd attract too much attention, a Minutemen war party traveling across the Commonwealth.

Curie said barely a single word on the trip. She wouldn't even look at Piper or MacCready. All that any of them could swear they heard was right when they left.

She looked to the sky, hoping he wasn't dead yet, and whispered "I'm coming Nate."

 **Sorry this chapter is super short! Its been almost a month since I've updated this and I felt so bad about that, I figured I should at least put something out while working on the larger chapters. I promise we are almost at the final battle between the Brotherhood and the Minutemen and these new guys. See ya next chapter!**

 **-Skaterbob2**


	23. The Final Battle Pt 1

The first thing Nate noticed when he regained consciousness was the stale smell of decaying flesh hanging in the air. The air vents inside the vault were clearly not doing their job. The second, he had no mobility at all. He looked down to find his arms and legs bound to the cold metal chair, inside a small room with several dry blood stains on the walls. He gulped at the thought of what caused their appearance. Possibly the crazed mind-controlled cannibals he read about, or maybe a recent addition by the new residents.

The dreadful silence was interrupted by the terrible screeching of the metal door, the woman that struck him unconscious entered, Still dawning her loose and tilted power armor helmet. "Glad to see you're awake," she slowly walked behind him with heavy steps that echoed on the metallic walls. "I've been waiting to have some fun with you." She motioned to a crisp white trunk at the corner of the room. "You've been the source of quite a few problems for our organization," she leaned forward, "and a bit of trouble towards me personally."

"I've been around the Commonwealth Miss, a lot of people want me dead." Nate said, "Forgive me if I can't exactly place you, especially if you're too much of a coward to show me your face." He sneered.

"You really haven't figured it out? You're more dull than I originally thought." The feminine figure untied the rope around her head. She pulled the helmet off, revealing her tan wrinkly skin, graying hair, and the condescending and rude glare in her eyes Nate recognized instantly.

Dr. Madison Li

Nate chuckled. "I should've known it would take more than a nuke to take your people down." He stared her down, while she stayed still and returned the hateful glare. "So now you're going to kill me for turning "humanity's best hope" into dust?" He unwisely joked.

She opened the trunk and pulled out some kind of tool that was obscured from Nate's vision. "This was never about the Institute." She said. "I simply used their resources to get what I wanted. You and the Brotherhood, both in the ground." She turned, showing off the deadly looking device in her hand, it's intention Nate could only imagine.

"For a long while, I was simply angry." She got closer to him. "Angry at you for lying to me about your intentions with my work. Angry at the Brotherhood for the rebuilding of Liberty Prime, and their fascist views in general. Of course I had no way of showing my anger, until I found this place." She gestured towards the empty walls surrounding the pair. "I realized I had just unlocked the way towards my revenge. Once I recruited some scientists who survived your massacre," she glared at Nate, "I began working towards perfecting the deceased's research."

Nate felt an overflow of new information, suddenly so much made sense. The unknown soldiers appearing from thin air, the emotionless voices of Madison's agents, the careful manipulation of every event leading up to now. "Of course," Madison continued with her monologue while Nate pondered, she acted like she had been rehearsing this moment for months. She almost seemed annoyed that Nate wasn't paying attention. "Scientists can't do the work a synth could. Infiltrating enemy territory, sabotaging enemy data, handing a weapon. I still had some loyal synths at my disposal," Nate thought of Fahrenheit and Jules. "But I needed more. We "recruited" in small settlements, just out of the Minutemens area so you're eavesdropping ears heard nothing, some of them took," she looked at the dry blood. "Persuading, to join our cause. But after we perfected the mind control devices, we had no problems. We soon indoctrinated Maxson and several other Brotherhood officers."

"Preston?" Nate asked. He knew now that they must've done something to him. There's no possibility of Preston's betrayal like that right?

"Actually, no interference was required." Wrong. "He obeyed Maxson like that mutt of yours. Never asking questions, always eager to help." Madison smiled knowing that the info was tearing Nate apart.

"Now," she coughed. "I think we've talked long enough." She clicked the device, a sharp blast of electricity instantly began pulsing between to metal rods.

She practically punched Nate in the gut with the taser, the sparks instantly shooting through his body at the speed of a jet. He screamed as the pain hit him like he was charged by a Deathclaw.

Madison laughed as the voltage surged through his veins with painful speed. She pulled away, right as he was on the edge of blacking out.

Nate gasped and nearly vomited. He felt like he had been set on fire, his insides were seared to the point where it hurt to even think about moving.

Madison walked back to the damaged General, preparing to resume the torture. She had the rod pressed against Nate's chest when the door opened. A man with a pale face and graying hair ran inside, "Ma'am, a high number of enemies are approaching have breached the east end of the vault!"

"Who? Minutemen? Gunners?" Madison asked carelessly, despite the mans clear panic.

"The Brotherhood is here in full force ma'am!" Madison took a moment to take in the true state of danger she was in. "We can hold them off for a little while but not forever. We need to evacuate out important people and data."

"Come with me." She ordered. The two left the room quickly. Leaving Nate to sit and await the Brotherhood finding him. He shifted in his chair, the pain of the electric rod still burning inside him. Despite the metal walls, he could hear fighting all around him. The sounds of Brotherhood power armor stomping around, the chirps of the laser weapons firing.

Nate felt his grim fate drawing nearer and nearer as the sounds grew louder. He could only describe his thoughts with one word, a word he didn't like, not then, not after the battle, he never would like what he felt then and there as he sat defenseless, waiting for some soldier to put a bullet in his brain.

Relief.

Relief that he would no longer be apart of this insufferable world. No longer fighting a hopeless cause for justice similar to a world that had long since died. Maybe God had finally released Nate from his torment. Maybe Nate's maker had a bit of mercy after all.

Nate suddenly had an idea. Today might not be the day he died after all. _Well, this might not work, so..._ he thought as he reached into his back pocket. He pulled out the small tube of melting goo that Sturges made for him. He tried his best to delicately open the bottle with his hands still bound. Eventually he got the cap off and poured a little on the rope that held his hands together. He heard a short sizzling noise before he felt his hands break free. He reapplied the cap and untied the rope at his feet.

"Huh." Nate eyed the container, he looked up, "Thanks Sturges." He opened the trunk in the corner and sifted through its contents. Finding various torture devices and useless junk. Eventually he pulled out an Institute pistol with some ammo inside. He held it as he poured the last of the goo on the doors lock. It opened and he stepped out. Small fires lit the dark hallways as the sound of gunfire still echoed throughout the metal walls.

He picked a random direction and aimlessly wandered, hoping to find an exit. His gun raised as he entered a small lab area. Several brainwashed mercenaries fought off Brotherhood troops. He crouched behind a set of consoles as his enemies blasted each other apart. "For Elder Maxson!" The Brotherhood shouted. Nate scoffed as he emerged and took down two hostiles. Despite his interference, the others barely took notice to him, still focused on destroying the other.

A Paladin clad in power armor emerged from the troops. He sprinted towards the weakened mercs and crushed them under his metal boots. He grabbed one by the throat. "This is for what you did to Maxson!" He slammed his captive onto the console, Nate cringed as the sound of bone crunching bounced of the walls. He raised his pistol to take down the Paladin. He caught him by surprise, the first beam slightly pushing him down. Nate took the confused state as an opportunity to loot one of the mercs. He grabbed a fragmentation grenade, pulled the pin and jammed it into the armpiece, he threw the Paladin into the crowd of troops and took cover. The explosion sent shrapnel over Nate's head and onto the wall.

He emerged and examined the bloody mess before him. He salvaged what he could, only a few fusion cells and some useless dog tags.

He ran through a door, and stepped onto a catwalk above the atrium. It was a war zone. He hit the deck as multicolored lasers beamed across the room. Several groans and screams filled his ears as he crawled to the edge of the platform. Institute engineers and scientists combined with their hypnotized forces fought valiantly, but hopelessly. The Brotherhood burned through them, yet the number of mercenaries seemed endless.

Everytime one side gained an advantage, the other pulled some move that leveled the odds again. The Institute kept producing their brainwashed super soldiers out of nowhere, but the Brotherhood always cut them down eventually. The Brotherhood occasionally tried to storm their defenses, but were quickly gunned down.

A missile struck the catwalk, Nate felt the metal bridge shake and creak. The Institute seemed to have noticed his presence. He opened fire in an effort to defend himself. He took down a few before being forced to take cover due to their concentrated fire. While the Institute focused on him, they failed to notice the power armor giant enter the atrium. They raised their gatling laser, the Institute scientists tried it call for a retreat before the red fire sprayed across their defenses. Nate listened as they screamed while the lasers turned them to glowing piles of ash.

As Nate peered over the edge, he caught a glimpse of the soldier remove his helmet. He rubbed at his eyepatch, picking off a bit of the crumbling ceiling. He looked up towards the catwalk and locked eyes with Nate. "It's about time we finish this Nate." He aimed his gatling laser towards the side opposite of Nate, where the missile had struck. The vulnerable catwalk collapsed, tossing Nate onto the debris littered floor. He coughed and wheezed as his old friend picked him up. Nate looked and saw the other troops retreating into other sections of the vault, and he noticed that Preston had exited his armor. "I've sent my men away to make this a fair fight. Since, as you know I'm a man of honor."

Nate spat blood onto the tile floor, "You know nothing of honor. An honorable man wouldn't follow Maxson, who was under these peoples control."

"We know." Preston said.

 **Earlier on the Prydwen...**

Preston and Haylen stood beside Maxsons bed, overlooking the still unconscious Elder. Cade entered.

"What happened to him?" Preston asked.

"I don't know." Case responded. "It's unlike anything I've seen. It's as if he just had some extreme mental breakdown. He should be awake within the hour though." Maxson then rose from his bed. "Well That was quick."

Maxson instantly looked at the three with deep hatred. He lunged at Haylen, pinning her to the ground and strangling her. Preston ran for a weapon as the sound of Haylens neck snapping rang through the cabin. Maxson grabbed a bottle from his desk and knocked it over Cade's skull, causing it to smash. Maxson didn't waste the opportunity and used the shards to slash the medics throat. Several Initiates heard the commotion and ran inside. Preston grabbed his pistol as Maxson swiftly continued his rage induced attack by using a surgery knife to gut the inspecting Brotherhood troops. Preston opened fire, sending the bright rays through the Elders flesh. One shot hit his skull and caused it to explode in a red pasty mess.

Preston looked in sorrow at the former Elder. He felt guilt at taking the mans life, but he was going to kill him otherwise. Kells and Senior Scribe Neriah rushes in and inspected the body. Preston felt white noise fill his ears as he suddenly felt dizzy and sick. He sat at the table and resisted the urge to puke. He looked up and saw Kells examining a piece of metal. It looked like a beacon of sorts.

 **Vault 109...**

"We traced the beacon to here. We're making these people pay for what they did." Preston finished.

The conversation ended as Nate was thrown across the room. "And we'll kill you if you're in our way." Nate stood up and grabbed a metal bar. Preston snickered. "So be it. Oh well, I was gonna kill you anyway." Preston rushed him, Nate quickly swung the pipe and nailed Preston in the jaw. The Paladin was sent back a few paces. Before he could recuperate, Nate got him again. Preston regained his sense and blocked the third shot. He twisted the pipe from Nate's grip and swung it at the Generals leg. After he was knocked to one knee, Preston kicked him hard in the chest.

Nate coughed as his lungs struggled to refill with air. "That all you got?" He taunted. Preston filled with rage as he prepared to swing again. Nate elbowed Preston's exposed gut. While he was knocked down for a bit, Nate grabbed a sharp piece of debris from the catwalk. Preston tried to get up, but Nate's boot pinned him to the ground. Nate raised the metal and plunged it into the traitors chest. Preston coughed and wiped the blood off his chest. He wheezed, desperately clinging to life. Nate walked away, leaving his old friend his slow approaching fate.


	24. The Final Battle Pt 2

Curie lead the group through the dry, dusty wasteland of the western Commonwealth. She looked into the horizon and saw smoke rising. "Ronnie, hand me the binoculars." Ronnie reached into her bag and pulled out the rusted binoculars. Curie grabbed them from her hand and looked closer at the smoke. "There's an exposed bunker that's being attacked right now." Curie reported. She pointed towards the smoke to show the rest of the group.

"Who's attacking?" Nick asked. Curie looked around more, she saw vertibirds flying in the sky and power armor suits stomping inside.

"We have to move!" She began sprinting towards the battle site. The others following when they got a glimpse of the chaos.

 _I'm coming Nate_

OOOOOOOOO

Nate wiped the blood off of his forehead as he walked through the burning halls, smoke penetrating his nostrils and making him cough uncontrollably. Some soldiers from both sides had abandoned the fight, and were trying to save themselves from the flames. Nate avoided whatever battles he walked into as best as he could, every now and then however a brotherhood soldier or Institute mercenary and take a potshot at him and had to be put down.

Nate fell against a wall, the fiery storm in his lungs forcing him to rest. He racked his brain, trying hard to figure out how to escape. He quickly relived every moment from his time in Vault 109 that he could recall. Then he remembered...

 _"Ma'am! A high amount of enemies have breached the east end of the vault!"_

Li's assistant revealed the Brotherhoods entry point, if they were able to get inside, they'd probably be able to leave the same way too. Only one problem... Nate had no idea which way was east.

OOOOOOOOO

Curie came to a stop at the edge of a deep crater, small fires were scattered across the debris-ridden hole and a large aura of smoke billowed from a collapsed underground bunker. She watched dirt and bits of metal tumble downward into the pit, occasionally bouncing off the armor of a deceased Brotherhood soldier. "Should've known they'd have something to do with this." Curie muttered. The rest of her group caught up with her. Ronnie noticed the Brotherhood troops and cursed under her breath.

"Hold on... who the hell are these guys?" MacCready stepped deeper into the crater and motioned towards a group of three bodies.

"Armor looks like a Gunners." Dance noted.

"Nah, too grungy to be a Gunner. Plus there's no skull insignia." Mac further observed.

"Then who are they?" Piper asked the question on everyone's mind.

"Just... normal hired guns. People you could find at any sleazy bar in the Commonwealth. But this place looks to fancy for people like them." MacCready said. "And what quarrel would a merc have with the Brotherhood?"

"Well they are trying to kill everyone." Ronnie remarked. MacCready shrugged and skidded down the shrapnel covered dirt hill. The other followed him and proceeded carefully inside.

OOOOOOOOO

Nate resorted to trailing a distraught group of low-level Brotherhood troops, who wailed and cried as they tried to navigate through the burning vault. Despite their tears, they seemed to have some sense of direction. Eventually they stepped onto a bridge overlooking the generator room. This one was more cleaner than previous vaults Nate visited, the floors were linoleum instead of dirt, the walls were wiped clean of most dirt, but the blood kinda ruined it. Nate briefly glanced over and saw the man who entered the interrogation room earlier, the one who gave him the idea to go east. He stood outside a vault door with a window nearby, that was boarded up with plywood.

"Keep this area safe! We must protect Dr. Li until we can ensure a safe route for her to evacuate!" The merc nodded and shared the doctors orders with the other troops. Nate felt his brain go into overdrive. He assumed Madison was behind the door, barely any guards were outside to protect her. He checked his ammo, twenty shots left.

 _Gotta make every shot count_

He raised the Institute rifle to his shoulder and aimed down the sights. He picked off one of the guards with a quick shot to the head. The others immediately scanned the entire area, looking for the assailiant. In the confusion, Nate took down two more with headshots. Eventually they traced the blue beams back to his position and opened fire. He crawled on his stomach away from the edge of the bridge. He looked down at the ground on the other side, trying to determine how much of a fall it was. He guessed around twenty feet. He slid off the bridge and fell to the ground. His knees, already weak before the drop, felt like they were ready to burst. He ran as fast as he could toward some cover.

He tumbled over a console and glanced around the side, ten more guards were still standing. He raised his rifle and opened fire, the first two shots missing before he got one in the heart. Another went down with a blast to the skull. All of the brainwashed guards were eventually taken down. When Nate was sure it was safe to leave cover, he stood up and checked his rifle.

One shot left.

He looked at the door and thought, " _That's all I need."_

OOOOOOOOO

The Minutemen carefully wandered through the vault, trying to find their General. The smoke and fire blocked most of their vision however, the only who wasn't coughing was Nick.

Over the commotion, Curie swore she heard something. It sounded like barking, "Dogmeat?!"

Sure enough, the sound of a dogs nails hitting the metal floor resounded throughout the vault. Dogmeat ran to the group and gave a very happy bark. Curie was relieved to see that someone was okay.

"Excuse me? Miss Curie?" A British voice called out. Codsworth emerged from the smoke and joined the group.

"Codsworth! What happened?!" Curie asked frantically.

"Mister Nate, Dogmeat, and I were investigating this vault. The Mister found a terminal and looked through it, he had a look of horror on his face that I've only seen once before, when the bombs dropped." Codsworth said. "Then a few men came in, they temporarily deactivated me and did something to Dogmeat. We awoke and the vault was in flames!"

Curie turned to the others, "Can someone get them to safety?"

Piper volunteered, mostly because she wanted to leave the god-forsaken vault as soon as possible. The two groups separated and Curie continued onward into the vault.

OOOOOOOOO

Nate stepped inside the room, it looked to be a maintenance room that had been remodeled into an office for Dr. Li. She sat at a worn out red chair, sipping from a container of purified water. She looked at him with an expression that lacked any horror or fear. "If you're going to kill me then do it, I don't like when people drag things out." She hissed.

"You and your entire Institute is about to be put into the ground, this time for good." Nate sneered. She chuckled.

"The Institute will not die with me, how foolish can you possibly be?" She insulted. "I've given new orders to my people. Get all our research out and evacuate the Commonwealth. They'll be leaving soon, and be plotting how to kill you the second they leave Massachusetts."

"I'm not letting that happen." Nate said. He looked to his side, he approached the window and punched out the plywood, it hit the ground with a dull thunk.

"How may I ask, you're weak, no weapon, if you make any attempt to stop them they'll take you down before you can even aim your weapon." Nate looked at the generator. He approached a dusty console, and started looking through the options. He clicked on Generator Self-Destruction.

 _If the vault is ever compromised, use this command to override the generators cooling system. You'll have sixty seconds to evacuate before the explosion_ The caption read.

Nate tried to enter, but growled in frustration when the password required pop-up appeared. He turned back to Madison with his gun raised. "Tell me the password!" He ordered.

She laughed heartily. "Or you'll kill me? I've already come to terms with my demise, I was never getting out of here alive. With or without your involvement. Face it General, you've lost. The entire Commonwealth will be exterminated. Maybe not as soon as I'd hoped, but it will be eventually. And that'll make burning in the deep pits of hell completely worth it, to know I've dragged this entire wasteland down with me."

Nate ignored her as he ran outside, he approached one generator and looked it over. He saw a metal panel marked cooling system, and ripped off the panel covering it. He raised his gun and turned back to Li, who now stood in the doorway with the look of fear he wanted to see.

"You wouldn't." She whispered.

"I would." He said.

"Please... no..." she begged. Nate smiled.

"What was that you said to me? Spare the rod," he cocked his weapon, "spoil the child." He fired, destroying the cooling system. The generator immediately began to overload, Madison cried on the ground as Nate walked to the wall and sat down.

His last thought before the blinding light of the explosion was,

 _I'm sorry Curie... I love you_

OOOOOOOOOO

Curie fell to the floor as the sound of an explosion rocked the entire vault. Nick picked her up off the floor and helped her to her feet. "What the hell was that?" Danse yelled. Several other explosions followed the large one.

"This entire vault is going to blow!" MacCready yelled. "We gotta leave now!"

"No!" Curie yelled, tears filling her eyes. "I'm not leaving Nate to die here!" Ronnie grabbed her wrist and pulled her in the direction of the exit.

"I'm sorry Curie, I'm so sorry! But if we don't leave we'll die too!" Ronnie dragged the crying synth away from the vault. They reached the pit they entered through, MacCready and Danse helping them all out before climbing out themselves. They ran as far as they could before an explosion from behind blew them all off their feet. Curie turned back, the explosion looked like a nuke had gone off. She collapsed on the ground and cried, thinking one thing.

 _I'm sorry Nate... I love you_

OOOOOOOOO

Curie didn't leave Nate's room for a week after that, she never talked to anyone or looked them in the eye anymore. She wouldn't even talk with old friends like Mac or Piper. The Minutemen kept a clos eye on the Brotherhood, but after the death of Elder Maxson they stopped the random attacks. They departed from the Commonwealth two months later.

Ronnie placed the name that nobody wanted to ever see on the memorial wall, that of their General's. She took over as General of the Minutemen after Nate's passing, due to her close relationship with Nate and general share of his ideals, nobody had a problem with her promotion.

One day when she locked herself in her room, Curie had a realization. There was nothing for her in the Commonwealth. Nate was gone, the Minutemen had grown enough so they didn't desperately need her as a medic, and Ellen could run the hospital in Starlight without her.

The only thing that might keep her around would be her friends. But in the weeks after Nate's death, she felt like she hardly knew them. The only new detail about their lives she knew was that MacCready and Piper had become a couple, based on the reporters groans that come from the MacCreadys room right next to Curies.

Curie made up her mind about what to do, she got up form her bed and started packing a bag. She grabbed a backpack and put in stimpaks, ammo, food, clothing, anything that could be useful on a long journey. She grabbed her assault rifle and slung it over her shoulder. She almost left before she remembered a few more things. She walked into the General's room, thankfully Ronnie was absent. She pulled the rug out and revealed a safe. She put in the code and pulled out a sack with about five thousand caps in it. Nate's emergency fund. She also ran back to her room and grabbed a photo of Nate and her together that they took when they found a working camera in the Boston Bugle building.

With all her essentials packed, she exited the Castle. Walked through downtown, and over the hills, leaving the Commonwealth and never planning on returning.


	25. Epilogue

**Four years later...**

Valerie wrapped her coat even tighter around her. The snow outside hadn't let up for almost two days, it was near impossible to leave her office due to the pile of snow outside her door. It was unseasonably cold, even for Seattle. It was no doubt the worst she'd experienced since she came here.

Puget Outpost was a reasonably large settlement, larger than other places she'd traveled. Enough protection and resources that she decided to settle down there after wandering across the United States for two years. She was welcomed with open arms, as the town was desperate for someone with even a minor medical background, if she hadn't come along they might've settled with someone who only knew CPR. And her military service made her an even more valuable asset to the settlement.

The winter was the second worst season for her line of work, hypothermia and colds were much worse and deadly without the medication and treatment from the former world, but she was able to make do and keep the body count minimal. The only time of year worse than this was summer, people spending more time outside meant more heatstroke and more getting ripped apart by the wildlife. People seemed to misunderstand healing illnesses wasn't the same as bringing people back from the dead. There was little she could do to help when some fool tried to go for a swim and got his legs bitten off by a radwhale, except make his wife cry with the blunt truth.

That was a bad day.

She got up from the black couch to put another log on her fireplace. She pushed her hair behind her ears as she bent down into the flames. She had grown her hair out so that it reached her upper back, she decided to abandon her once trademark short hair when she settled in Puget Outpost.

The absent howling of the wind outside was interrupted by a knock at her door. She paused for a moment, wondering who had dug through almost five feet of snow to talk to her? It had better been urgent, she wasn't willing to open her door and let the cold rush in for an old man with a stomach ache.

She opened the door and saw a man much taller than her, he had an unkempt beard that matched the long, fluffy blond hair on his head that nearly reached his shoulders. He wore a long coat that had been stained brown with dirt, and had a hunting rifle slung over his shoulder.

"May I come in?" He asked, his voice oozing with charm. An unaffected Valerie stepped away from the door and motioned him inside. He stepped into the hospital and she followed a few paces behind.

Valerie surveyed the man, he looked uninjured, unless he had some weird head problem then he was wasting her time. "Can I help you?" She asked. He smirked, as if she had done something to humor him.

"You seem very familiar." He said. Valerie was confused, but tried her best to hide it. The man sounded as if he was teasing her.

"If you don't have a medical problem then I'm going to have to ask you to leave." She grew impatient.

"Four years and you still haven't shaken that accent." He said. Valerie's eyes widened.

"Excuse me?"

"You're a hard woman to find Curie. Or do you go by Valerie now? That's what I've heard the locals call you." He stepped closer and she stepped back, she reached behind her back and unholstered her .10 mm pistol.

"Leave. Now." She ordered.

"You wouldn't shoot an old friend, would ya Curie?" The mans smirk grew bigger, she lowered her weapon and felt her heart sink and tears fill her eyes as she realized who she was talking to.

"Is it... really you?" She whispered.

"Yep, It's Mac." The fucking merc. She raised her pistol again and pushed it against his forehead, his smirk disappearing.

"You piece of human filth, leave my office now! If you ever come near this place again I'll kill you myself! Do you understand me?" She fumed. MacCready nodded. "There is a reason I left the Commonwealth. I don't know what you're doing here, but if you're trying or bring me back," she blinked away a tear that threatened to spill and pushed down a voice crack. "it's a lost cause."

MacCready gulped. He carefully sidestepped out of the office and out the door. He stood outside in the cold as Curie slammed it shut behind him. He looked towards the marketplace, dreading the talk he was about to have and what he'd say. He walked towards his traveling companion, "Was it her?" He asked, desperation heavy in his words. MacCready had to decide what to do.

"Uhh..." He said, the man stood staring at him, waiting for an answer. They had found who they were looking for, but it certainly wasn't her.

OOOOOOOOO

Curie retreated to the upstairs area, the downstairs too cold now after her unwelcome reunion with MacCready. Her assistant, Michelle, ran to greet her. "Are you alright Valerie? I heard you yelling downstairs." Curie breezed past her. "Okay..." She stuttered.

Curie looked the door to her quarters and laid in the bed. She still had an iron grip on her gun, that she refused to release until her palms became extremely sore. Downstairs, Michelle recuperated from her bosses cold silent treatment and returned to her work. Unfortunately, another interruption burst through the door. It was a man, very tall and muscular. Michelle was too busy eyeing his broad shoulders, she almost missed the inelegant robotic arm. She was too focused to miss the first wave of shouting from the man.

"I'm sorry what?" She stammered.

"Where is Cu-..." He angrily groaned "Valerie?!"

"Dr. Muller is upstairs, only patients and staff are allowed, but even if you were sick she made it very clear-" The man stomped towards the stairs. "Sir? Sir, you can't go up there! Sir!" She trotted behind him in vain. The man bolted up the stairs and opened the first door he saw. When he discovered it was a closet, he opened the next one.

Curie sat up, picking her gun back up with her, clicking the safety off when she saw the stranger in her doorway, like MacCready, he had shaggy blond hair but with less of a beard, it was gracious to even call it stubble. "Get out now!" She yelled with her weapon raised. The man didn't move, just stood in the doorway, like he was in a trance.

"Curie... I thought I'd never see you again." He said. Curie forced down the lump in her throat.

"Michelle, go home." She ordered, the short girl obliged, leaving the two alone in the hospital. "I don't know who you are, but go. Never come back here."

"Curie... it's m-"

"What kind of cruelty is inside you?!" She yelled. "Why would you come here and pretend to be... him?" Tears started to form in her eyes. "Just to torture me?" Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. "Get out of here. You have 30 seconds, or you'll be dead long before the guards get here." She threatened.

"Curie, what can I do to convince you it's me... I'll do anything." The gun in Curies hand shook, before she reluctantly lowered it.

"If you are... Nate" she nearly broke right then and there. That was the first time she'd said his name in almost three years. "Tell me something only he would know, I told him plenty of secrets. Shouldn't be hard."

The man gulped. "Ok... your real name is Curie, contagions vulnerability robotic infirmary engineer. You were programmed to work in the subsection of vault 81, to develop cures to various viruses through mole rats and eventually the vault population. You were given free will by Doctor Collins and buried two of the scientists you worked with and cremated the other."

Curie was shaken, nobody except she, Nate and Piper knew that much about her...

"My god... Nate." She wrapped her arms around him and let the tears fall down her cheeks, her eyes already turning red. "I thought you were dead, we all did..." she suddenly noticed his left arm lacked the familiar warmth of the rest of his body. She looked down, and saw his forearm had been replaced with what seemed to be an assaultron arm. The fingers were altered to function more human-like. "How did this happen?" She asked

OOOOOOOOOOO

Nate felt the explosions rocking the vault. The dirt rose above him, forming a dust cloud that floated a foot above the ground. Li still lay crying in front of him, crying bitter tears for the death of her vengeance. He had nearly dozed off, hoping to go in his sleep, when he felt a large explosion beneath him. The floor ripped apart, he felt the ground beneath him give out and his body fell down two stories. He hit the ground and a horrible pain shot through his body, the worst of it in his arm. He looked over, a metal vault piece had fallen with him, and landed on his arm. It was useless as unbaked dough now.

The grand finale finally came as the vault generator erupted above him. Cloaking everything in blinding light.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"A group of raiders was investigating the crater a few hours later." Nate sat on the bed with Curie wrapped around his arm. "They kidnapped me and held me in their hideout for nearly four months. When I was able to get free, I ran to the nearest Minuteman settlement, which happened to be Graygarden. They contacted the Castle and had me taken back for medical care." He raised his metal appendage. "My arm was way too damaged to be salvaged. So they grabbed a few parts from a sentry bot and some assualtrons and made this." Curie compared his remaining arm to the artificial replacement. It had been welded to be a close in size to his real arm as possible.

"Its worked well enough." Nate continued. "They brought me up to speed about what happened to the Brotherhood after I recovered. Apparently I wasn't pretty."

 **Several Years Ago...**

"Have you gotten in contact with Commander Shaw?" The Minuteman asked.

"Not yet sir. But I'm still trying to rea-"

Gunfire went off in the armory. Lasers lit up the hallway and sent bright lights outside through the window. The defectors from the Brotherhood charged outside. Covered in blood, they were fighting each other and the Minutemen that were stationed inside the armory.

The courtyard erupted in fire and fistfights. The Brotherhood squad had gone berserk, killing each other, Minutemen, and the Brahmin they had grazing in the courtyard grass.

Ada turned her head outside, alerted by the chaos. She charged outside, seeing the mania. She immediately started spraying the Brotherhood with the mini-gun attachment Nate had so graciously given her.

Soon the defectors were dead. The minutemen were gasping for breath, confused about what had taken over the troopers that were seemingly unwaveringly loyal a few moments ago.

"Well... that was strange."

 **Present day...**

They sat together in silence. Curie nestled against the love she thought for so long was dead. Nate drowned in the warmth of the only light he had in his life that had been darkness for so long.

"Why did you leave?" He asked.

"I had to get away from the Commonwealth. It held nothing for me but memories of you. I couldn't live with myself for much longer if I stayed." Nate couldn't believe what he was hearing. She blamed herself?

"Curie. Listen to me." He looked her in the eye and forced her to meet his gaze. "I love you, and what happened to me wasn't your fault. It was completely my fault for leaving without you."

She snuggled back into him. He didn't let her stay there for long though, he stood up and pulled her up with him. "Listen, we managed to get a blueprint of the Prydwen from Cambridge police station shortly before the Brotherhood left. We built one of our own, and its waiting for us." Curie felt her heartbeat speed up. "Wanna head back home? There's some old friends dying to see you." She laughed and kissed him.

"Let's go, but you've got four years to make up." She whispered seductively. "We need to get to work as soon as we get on board."

Nate chuckled. "Can do. I think the captains quarters is soundproofed." The two snickered as they kissed, Curie felt her insides turn inside out as he kissed her. If she was asked four or five years ago to explain what she felt right now, she'd be at a loss. Because all the textbooks and science articles can't explain the strongest force known to man.

Love.

 **And... my first major story is officially wrapped up! And it only took me nearly a year!**

 **Thank you to everyone who read this story and I hope you enjoyed it. It was super fun, (if not mentally straining at times) to write.**

 **Thank you again,**

 **\- Skaterbob2 :)**


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